


Five Times Tony Stark Got to be a Normal Dad

by CaptainStarSong



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bullying, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Iron Dad, New York Mets, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Sick Peter, Spider-son, Tony Stark Has A Heart, dad tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-03-19 16:25:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13708212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainStarSong/pseuds/CaptainStarSong
Summary: ... and one time Peter acts like a normal son.Peter Parker hasn't had a father figure in his life since the untimely death of his Uncle Ben. Tony Stark never gets to act like a normal person, on account of him being a genius, billionaire, and former playboy philanthropist. But, for Peter, he's willing to do anything, especially if he gets to be the kid's surrogate dad.





	1. Academic Decathlon Competition

**Author's Note:**

> Hello loves! This is my first ever fanfiction, and I'm pretty nervous about it. I tried to keep Peter and Tony and the rest of the gang in character, so please tell if I made any mistakes with them! Also let me know if I made any grammar or spelling errors, I'd love to hear your feedback! I really hope you enjoy my story, it should be six parts in total. Thank you!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wherein Tony Stark is one of those dad's who loves going to his kid's competitions.

It wasn’t that Peter didn’t want to tell Mr. Stark about his upcoming competition- in fact, he wanted to tell Tony so badly. It was just that Peter knew Mr. Stark would be way too busy to attend a measly Academic Decathlon competition, even if it was a semi-final.

_ I mean, he probably has a million other things to do,  _ Peter thought, staring as Tony wielded another piece of Iron Man armour to his new suit. While Tony had become much more attentive of his mentee after the Homecoming fiasco, he was still the world famous Tony Stark: genius, billionaire, and former playboy philanthropist. If there wasn’t a crisis that required Iron Man, then there would be some event that needed Tony Stark.

Plus, Peter was already beyond grateful that Mr. Stark even bothered to spend any time with him. Every Friday night Mr. Stark would have Peter come over and help him work on new tech, suit repairs, and general awesome science stuff. The Stark Internship wasn’t a cover anymore, especially since Aunt May knew about his Spider-Man secret. Peter had even gotten a cool new ID card with his name and picture on it that said “Official Stark Industry Intern” which he had shown off at school, much to Flash’s chagrin. And sometimes they didn't even work on anything, instead opting to eat dinner together and watch a movie. Mr. Stark would ask him how school was, and Peter would regale tales to tony about his latest Spider-Man antics.

So, yeah, it wasn't fair to blame Mr. Stark for not wanting to attend Peter’s competition. In fact, it would be selfish for Peter to even ask, knowing how much stress-

“I can hear you worrying from all the way over here, kid,” Tony said, not looking up from his position across the table. 

“W-what? I'm not worrying!” Peter defended, wincing at the way his voice cracked from nervousness.  _ Really not helping my case here _ .

Tony looked up from the armour he was working on, and gave him a deadpan stare. “Honestly, kiddo, you need to work on your lies. So spill, what's going on in that big brain of yours?”

Peter swallowed, throat suddenly dry.  _ Just tell him!  _ He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and said “Uh, nothing honestly.”

Mr. Stark rolled his eyes again. “So that's how it's gonna go, huh? Well, I  _ was _ going to invite you to stay the weekend and even have a whole Star Wars marathon with you, but since you're keeping secrets, I guess I'll have to take my invention back.”

Peter, who had been staring at his converse clad feet, snapped up his head to look at Tony.

“Seriously?! Ohmygosh thank you Mr. Stark, we can watch them in storyteller order! Ned’s gonna be so jealous, and-” Peter abruptly stopped talking, suddenly remembering that the competition was tomorrow morning, meaning he couldn't stay. “Um, I'm really sorry Mr. Stark, I can't this weekend.”

“What's wrong kid? Don't you want to stay over? Or already bored of me?” Tony asked, trying to play it off as a joke, but peter could see concern in his dark brown eyes.

“No I do! I really do Mr. Stark, honest. It's just that, well, uh I have something to do tomorrow morning. In the city, I mean.”

Tony stared at Peter, and Peter could feel himself reddening under his gaze. Sighing, Peter reluctantly elaborated, “My academic decathlon team has a competition tomorrow at 10AM. It’s the semifinals, after this we’d be two comps away from states again.”

Across from him Tony made an affronted noise. “And you weren’t going to tell me because…?”

Still blushing from embarrassment, Peter answered, “Well, because I thought you’d be busy. I dunno, I didn’t want to bother you for some stupid competition.”

Tony shook his head. “Kid, for a genius, you sometimes have the dumbest ideas.”

“What do you mean?” Peter asked, confused.

“Kiddo, your important stuff is my important stuff. So if you have one of those adorable little nerd events happening tomorrow, I want to come and cheer you on.”

Peter felt a warm feeling bubble in his chest. “So… you would want to come?”

“Of course! I’d love to watch you wipe the floor against other nerds. Couldn’t imagine spending my time doing anything better.” Peter hadn’t had anyone come to cheer him on in his competitions in a long time, not since Uncle Ben died. Both his Aunt and Uncle were proud and supportive of his AcaDeca skills, always quizzing him on the days leading up to the competition. But since Ben died, May had to work a lot more shifts at the hospital. When Peter would remind her of an upcoming competition, her eyes would go strained and sad, and she would say, “I would love to go, baby, but I have to work that day. Next time, I promise.”

After awhile, Peter had stopped asking, hating himself for making his Aunt feel guilty.  _ Just suck it up _ , he would think to himself _. Aunt May has to work to provide for your sorry ass, and it's just a stupid competition. _

But looking at Tony, who was staring at him with actual affection, made Peter feel that he could be believe that this competition was something to be proud of.

“Then I guess you can come.” Peter said, smirking. “Its at Midtown high, 10 AM sharp. You can watch us beat Bronx High School of Science.”

Tony laughed, “Wouldn’t miss it for the world, underoos.”

* * *

 

The next day Peter could feel the nerves building in his chest.  _ Calm down, you’ve done this a million times before _ . But, he reasoned silently, this time was different. It wasn’t everyday that your hero and mentor would be in the audience, cheering you on.

Peter was sitting up on the stage, Ned to his right, and Michelle to his left. Sally, Abe, and Charles all sat up on the stage, while Flash sat in the first row of the audience, just an alternate for the event. Across the stage from the Midtown team sat the Bronx team, six students wearing burgundy jackets.

“What’s up with you, dude?” Ned asked while Peter fidgeted with the sleeves of his golden jacket. “Are you actually nervous? You’re never nervous,  c’mon! We beat this school last year easily!”

To his right Michelle raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. “You better not blow this for us, Parker. We trained way too hard for this.”

“Guys,” Peter groaned, “I’m fine. I just want this to get started.”

Michelle snorted but didn’t say anything else, going over the flashcards in her hands silently while Ned turned to Sally when she asked him a question. Biting his lip, Peter anxiously scanned the crowd, looking for any glimpse of Mr. Stark.

“May I please have your attention,” Mr Harrington announced into the mic, “The competition will be starting in two minutes, so please find your seats and turn of all cellular devices. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy the competition.”

_ Maybe Mr. Stark had something come up last minute _ , Peter thought morosely.  _ Or maybe he realized he didn’t want to come to one of your dumb events _ .

Right when Peter was about to officially give up hope, the back auditorium doors opened, and Mr. Stark strode in, impeccably dressed in a suit but looking out of breath, like he’d been running. He walked over to the last row and sat down, taking off his black sunglasses. He squinted up at the stage, and when he saw Peter looking at him he gave a smirk and a thumbs up. He mouthed, ‘Good luck.’

Peter found himself smiling, suddenly feeling at ease with himself as the judges started the competition.  _ I got this _ .

* * *

 

“We are proud to announce that this year’s tri-state competition is Midtown School of Science and Technology. Please give the Midtown team a round of applause,” announced one of the judges. The crowd, who were mostly friends and family of the Midtown team, clapped and applauded joyfully. 

“We did it!” Ned crowed, hugging Peter.

“Good job, guess you decided not to suck today,” Michelle said, the genuine smile on her face betraying her sarcastic words as she got up to shake hands with the Bronx team’s captain.

Peter couldn’t help but grin, knowing that he had really helped his team in this competition. The judges had asked some intense questions, and both teams had gone answered dutifully. The score kept going up, and the lead kept getting exchanged in key moments. However, once the engineering questions had started to come up, Peter answered them with a clear head, fully confident in his responses. He had even managed to answer the last question, which secured Midtown the win.

The Midtown team continued to cheer and laugh as they exited the stage, giving hugs and high fives to one another. Mr. Harrington came over with the trophy, laughing as he congratulated all of them on the win.

“And congrats to you, Pete, the judges were impressed with your rapid answering.”

Peter blushed but grinned, pleased with himself as everyone turned to pat him on the back. Looking around, he spotted Mr. Stark in the back of the auditorium, hidden from most people. “I’ll catch you guys later, alright? I gotta go say hi to someone.”

Grabbing his nearby bag, Peter half-walked an half-skipped to where Tony was standing. Once he was near enough, Mr. Stark grabbed him by the shoulders while ruffling his hair. “Great job kid! You sure did wipe the floor with them. I’m not too surprised, I’ve never doubted your skills. I am very impressed, though, those were some tough questions for a high school level competition.”

Peter grinned bashfully, suddenly feeling shy at his mentor’s words. “Thanks Mr. Stark.”

Tony smiled down at him, but it wasn’t his usual snarky smirk, nor was it his trademark shit-eating grin. No, this one was his soft “I’m proud of you, kiddo” smile that he reserved for only Peter. It made a feeling blossom in Peter’s chest, a feeling Peter hadn’t felt since before the spiderbite. It was the same feeling Peter had had whenever Ben had come home to see straight A’s in Peter’s report card, or when Peter helped carry an old lady’s groceries up 12 flight of stairs just because he wanted to help.

Peter knew he would miss Uncle Ben every day for the rest of his life, but everyday it got a little easier to breathe whenever he thought of the man. He knew no one would ever replace his beloved uncle, but he also knew that it was ok to accept new people who actually cared about him into his life because his Uncle would have wanted that for Peter.

Blinking away the sudden prickle of tears in his eyes, Peter cleared his throat and added, “Thanks a lot, for everything, Mr. Stark.”

As if sensing the extra emotions behind Peter’s eyes and words, along with the sudden melancholic pain of the past, Tony gave Peter’s shoulder a small squeeze, and nudged him toward the door.  “C’mon Pete, let's blow this popsicle stand and celebrate your amazing win. We can get anything you want.”

Laughing, Peter allowed Tony to lead him to the exit. “Alright yeah. Then we can go watch that Star Wars marathon you promised!”

Tony good-naturedly groaned as he got into his car, “Why do I put up with you?”

“You know you love me, Mr. Stark,” Peter grinned, buckling into the passenger seat.

The start and hum of the car would have blocked out Tony’s words if it wasn’t for Peter’s spider-enhanced super hearing. “Yeah, kiddo, I really do.”

 


	2. A Game of Catch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even while busy, Tony will always be there for his Spider-Son.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, first off, thank you so much to everyone who commented or gave me a kudos on the first chapter! It really means the world to me <3
> 
> And for everyone who didn't comment or kudos, still a million thank-yous for even taking the time to read my little story <3 It makes me incredibly happy to know that people are actually reading my work and enjoying it lol
> 
> Just a general heads up, there are slight spoilers for Civil War, and future mentions of Infinity War (no spoilers for that, just how I think characters would act if they knew a threat to Earth was coming). There's also a brief mention of Ben Parker's death. Since technically we still don't know how he died in canon, I am going with the general idea that he was killed in a mugging in front of poor Peter.
> 
> As always, please let me know if there are any grammar or spelling errors, and tell me if I should fix something. Let me know if you would like to see something in a future chapter, or in another story entirely. Now onwards to the story!

* * *

 

By the time Tony managed to finally return to his quarters in the New Avengers’ facility the sun was already setting over the surrounding treeline. Expecting to see Peter sitting on the couch watching _The Office_ like he had been before Tony had left for the day, he instantly felt something that he didn’t want to admit was concern when he was instead met with total silence and no spiderling anywhere in the vicinity. While Tony knew that the Avengers’ compound was one of the safest places in the world, Tony still did not like for Peter to wander the complex on his own whenever Secretary Ross was supposed to pay a visit.

“FRIDAY, do you know where the kid is?” Tony asked towards the ceiling.

“The back lawn of the compound, Boss. He spent most of the day in your quarters, but he said he was bored of watching Netflix, and decided to go on a run around the compound,” FRIDAY answered dutifully. She seemed to hesitate for a moment before continuing, “He seems to be upset.”

Now Tony could admit to himself that he felt full-blown concern. “About what, FRI?”

“I’m not certain, Boss, he was fine when he made his first lap around the compound. He stopped midway through his second lap, and then just decided to sit down near the team shed. Would you like me to tell him you are here looking for him?” FRIDAY inquired.

Tony thought about for a moment, but decided against it. Shaking his head as he exited his quarters, he replied, “Nah, I’ll just go to him. This was supposed to be a fun weekend for him, but I’ve just been ignoring him. The least I could do is check up on him.”

Like the loyal AI that she was, FRIDAY chided, “You haven’t been ignoring him on purpose. The meetings were decided last minute, and Peter understood that.”

Tony was silent. He knew logically that he couldn’t have avoided the damn meetings with Ross and his staff, but he still felt as if he was ruining the kid’s time. This weekend was supposed to be special, for both of them.

For Tony it was supposed to be a stress reliever after the weeks of conferences and talks with the ex-Avengers in order to help them receive full pardons over what the media had dubbed the “Avengers’ Civil War.” While he had not fully forgiven his old team for everything that had happened leading up to the Leipzig airport fight, nor had he forgiven Steve for everything that had happened afterwards, he also knew that something powerful had set its eyes on Earth. In order for the world to survive, the Avengers needed to reband together, and learn how to trust one another again. And Tony was man enough to know that, while Team Cap had made many mistakes (Tony would still sometimes find himself screaming in the night as he was forced to watch his parents’ murder in his dreams over and over _and over and over_ …), he too had not helped to defuse the situation. And if Tony needed to bury his feelings in a deep dark ditch (darker than even _that_ cave in Afghanistan) in order to guarantee the safety of the world, then so be it.

He hadn’t originally meant to ask for Peter to spend the weekend with him at the Avengers’ compound. Even through his busy schedule, he had still been seeing the kid on their “official” lab days so the kid could get credit for his Stark internship and give the proof to his little nerd school. However, Tony had noticed that lately, Peter seemed more frayed around the edges. His eyes shifted more, and it took longer for him to process things. It seemed as if the kid was perpetually staring off in the distance. He had even been paying less attention his lab sessions with Tony, causing him to break a couple of beakers. It all concerned Tony enough that he called up May one night after Peter had left.

* * *

 

_“Oh, I had hoped he was acting better around you,” she had said when Tony voiced his concerns._

_“What do you mean,” Tony frowned as he tinkered with new armour for the Hulk._

_“He’s been like that almost all month,” May sighed. Tony could practically see her biting her lip as she debated whether to tell him the reason why. Before Tony could cajole her, she continued in a smaller voice, “The first anniversary of Ben’s death is coming up.”_

_Tony dropped what he was doing, all of a sudden feeling numb. It made sense, of course it did. Peter had never told Tony of his uncle’s death, nor had he told him of the circumstances of said death. But Tony had done his research when he first recruited the squirt, and it all started replaying in his head._

Shot in the chest _, he thought to himself_ , while his young nephew watched. Ben Parker died in his nephew’s arms _. Tony felt like the biggest dick in the world. He should of known what Peter was going through, and yet he had snapped at the kid that same day when Peter had dropped a third beaker. He was a terrible mentor._

* * *

 

The next lab session that Tony had with Peter after his conversation with May had been awkward on Tony’s part. He tried to keep his jokes light, and his annoyances to himself. Still, Tony felt like shit, so he invited the kid to join him for the weekend at the Avengers’ compound. _For fun and training_ , he had promised. _We can even have a couple of science fiction movie marathons._

Peter had genuinely been happy with the invitation, a light that had been missing for a while brightening his brown eyes. The first Friday night had been fun, with both of them watching all three _Back to the Future_ films in the living room. However, early that morning Thaddeus Ross had called, demanding to speak to Tony over new amendments in the Accords. Tony was tempted to just send the men straight to Hell, but Peter had protested.

“It’s ok Mr. Stark, I know that you’re always super busy. We can just do something fun after you’re done, I’ll be fine,” Peter had promised, a half-hearted smile on his lips. Tony had felt terrible about it, but since there wasn’t much he could do he just ruffled Peter’s hair and went to the conference room with Ross.

Finally reaching the back entrance, he stared at Peter, who was sitting in the empty field, staring at the forest as he hugged his knees to his chest. _Fine my ass_ , Tony thought.

“Hey kid,” Tony called out cautiously as he approached Peter’s form. “Watcha doing?”

If Peter was surprised that Tony had come out he did not show it. “Nothing much,” Peter said as he turned his head towards Tony. He could see that the spiderling was fiddling with something in his hand, but Tony couldn’t tell what it was from his position yet. “Just thinking.”

“Penny for your thoughts?” Tony asked as he took a seat next to Peter. “Or would a million dollars be better?” Sitting next to Peter, Tony could see that the kid was fiddling with a matte brown baseball glove, while an identical glove and ball were settled in front of him.

Peter snorted next to him. “Trust me when I say my thoughts aren’t worth a million dollars. Not even close.”  
“I would beg to differ. Some of your ideas are worth even more than what I have,” Tony said. And he honestly meant that, the kid sitting right next to him was one of the smartest people he had ever met, and Tony knew that one day, Peter would change the world. Even if the kid didn’t fully believe him yet.

Tony could see Peter hide a shy smile, but didn’t say anything else. Silence took up the air around them, and Tony racked his brain trying to figure out what to say, how to apologize. Finally, he settled for asking, “Where’d you get the glove?”

Peter blinked, and looked down at the glove in his hands as if he didn’t remember even holding it. Turning around toward the compound, he pointed towards the team shed near the building. “In there. I was curious to see what was in it, and FRIDAY said I was allowed to see.”

Tony looked towards the shed and felt his heart twist. Once upon a time, when the team was still happy and whole, Tony had noticed that all the Avengers would randomly do something different outside. Steve would throw a baseball in the air and practice batting with it, while Clint would shoot at random targets that he had set up. Natasha would sit outside and read as the sun hit her face, while Wanda tried to teach Vision how to paint watercolors. Rhodey and Sam would play basketball with one another while Bruce would referee them, and Tony would just sit and watch them all as he worked on plans from his phone. After a while Tony decided to have a shed installed, to hold the chairs that the team used to sit outside. One by one the rest of the Avengers added more things into the shed, from balls of all sizes to a whole basketball hoop and headboard. Sometimes, after a rough mission or on a boring Saturday afternoon, one of the team members would bring out something the whole team could play together, like baseball or kickball. As childish as it would sound, the whole team would let loose and have fun, acting like a dysfunctional but loving family. _A family that’s now broken,_ Tony reflected.

“Mr. Stark, are you ok?” Tony tore his eyes away from the shed, and looked at Peter. He saw worry in Peter’s eye, and forced himself to smile at the kid.

“Yeah of course, just remembering something,” he said. Tony felt his smile slowly slip away. “I should be the one asking that to you, kiddo, or at least apologizing,” Tony mused out loud.

Peter furrowed his eyebrows. “What do you mean, Mr. Stark?”

Shaking his head, Tony sighed, “You know what I mean, Pete.”

Peter was silent for a moment, before he timidly asked, “Is this about how you were busy all day today?”

“Of course it is, underoos,” Tony rolled his eyes. “I promised you a fun-filled weekend, and you spent the whole day pretty much alone. I’m a pretty shitty host, huh?”

“No you’re not!” Peter protested. “It’s not your fault Secretary Ross decided to come and be an asshat. I know that you’re always busy, and yet you somehow always manage to make time for me. Plus, you spent all of yesterday night watching movies with me!”

Tony couldn’t help but smile at the kid’s defense of him. Not wanting to argue with Peter, all he said was, “Alright, kid, whatever you say.”

The two were silent again, until Peter broke it, twisting the glove in his hand. “You know, my Uncle Ben always tried to teach me how to play baseball when I was little.”  
“Oh really?” Tony hummed, trying to not make a big deal out of Peter’s words for fear that he would clam up again. _If the squirt needs to talk, let him_.

“Yeah, he’d sit me down on a weekend and put on a Mets game. He’d explain all the rules to me, and answer all of my dumb little kid questions.” Peter grinned at the glove in his hands, adding, “Then, Uncle Ben would always take me out afterwards, both of our gloves and a ball in his hands while he’d walk us towards the park. He’d give me one glove, and have me run far from him. _‘Alright that’s far enough, Pete’_ he’d say after a while, and then would throw the baseball to me. I wish I could say I caught it Mr. Stark, but before the spiderbite I was _terrible_!” Peter laughed, and it wasn’t an empty one. No, it was a full one that shook his whole frame. Tony couldn’t help but laugh along, pleased that Peter was acting like the bright teenager that Tony knew he was.

Still grinning, Peter continued, “I remember once he even got us Mets tickets, him, me, and Aunt May. He got me ice cream in one of those little batter’s helmets that they sold at the stadium. Aunt May said it was way over priced, but Ben didn’t care because I really wanted it. I didn’t care that we could barely see the game from our seats, I had so much fun with them. I had so much fun with him.” All through Peter’s story, his wide grin had slipped until it was all gone by the end. He looked down at the glove he was holding, blinking hard. “I miss him,” he whispered.

Before Tony had met this strange kid, Tony would always say he was bad with emotions. Terrible, in fact. He couldn’t be in the same room as someone who was in tears without feeling like he was suffocating. But, watching this kid, _his kid_ , struggle to hold back tears, made something in Tony’s heart resolve itself. He wanted, no _needed_ , to make his kid feel better.

Tentatively, Tony wrapped his left arm around Peter’s shoulders. “Did I ever tell you that my dad was asshole?”

Tilting his head to look at Tony better, Peter quirked an eyebrow. “No? I don’t think so.”

Tony laughed bitterly. “Yeah well, I usually don’t try to share it with anyone. I mean, my dad wasn’t a bad man, but he was a terrible father. He was a drinker, and was always obsessive. He was best friends with our very own Cap, back in the day. But when Grandpa Frisbee got stuck in the ice, my father changed. Or, at least that’s what I was told.” Tony shook his head, and pulled his head back to watch the setting sun. “I’m pretty sure he never wanted kids. When I came along, he tried to deal with me for my mother’s sake. But he was never… involved with my childhood. Never played catch, never took me to watch a game, never even spent time with me if it wasn’t required. Never told me he was proud of me, and definitely never told me he loved me. I was so sure he hated me when I was a kid, and I promised myself that if I ever had kids, I would never treat them like how my old man treated me.

“I found out a couple of years back that he actually did love me though. Left a video message for me, and told me I was ‘His Greatest Creation’ if you could believe that. After all that time that I thought my dad hated me, and he actually did love me in his own emotionally-constipated way.” Tony shook his head. He hadn’t really thought much about Howard lately, but in some ways the man was still with him. When he was younger he had always promised himself that he wound never, _ever_ forgive Howard for all the emotional pain that he had caused him in his childhood. But after all the experiences that Tony had lived through, he now realized he could forgive his father. Howard had never been a perfect man, he was just a regular man, with normal faults and errors. And Tony could no longer find it in him to hate the man after all this time.

“I’m sorry Mr. Stark,” Peter said plainly. Looking down, Tony saw empathy and sadness in the boy’s eyes. Peter squeezed the hand of the arm that Tony had around him. “Sorry that your dad was a giant asshole.”

Quirking his lips, Tony squeezed Peter’s hand back. “I’m not telling you all of this for you to feel bad, kiddo. I’m telling you so you can know how lucky you truly were to have your Uncle in your life. You had a man that was willing to do anything for you, and it's ok for you to remember that. I know his death anniversary is coming up, and I want you to know that it’s ok to feel sad, or upset, hell even angry! I’m sure Ben Parker was a good man, a much better man than my father, or even me.”

Biting his lip, Peter asked, “And how do you know that, Mr. Stark?”

Smiling, Tony answered, “Well, for starters, he raised one hell of a man, kiddo.”

“You really think so?” Peter whispered, eyes big.

“Christ, kid, I don’t think see, I _know_ so."

Closing his eyes Peter leaned towards Tony. “Thanks Mr. Stark.” Opening back his eyes, Peter added, “But I think you’re one hell of a man, too. Definitely one of my favorites, and a better man than your dad ever was. Definitely a better father than him, that’s for sure, and I’m really glad to have you in my life, Tony.”

“Yeah, sure kid, whatever you say.” Tony turned his head away so the kid wouldn’t see the sudden moisture in his eyes. _This kid and emotions,_ Tony thought.

Clearing his throat slightly, Tony nodded towards the glove and ball on the floor. “How ‘bout we play a game of catch. In light of the mood and all that.”

Peter grinned bashfully as he got up, putting on his own glove as he passed the other glove to Tony. “I’d really like that, Mr. Stark.”

“Just saying, I am a really competitive player,” Tony warned playfully, watching as the kid took up a position across the field from him.

Peter smirked. “So am I, and thanks to the bite, I am a much better player now than I was as a kid.” To show off, he threw the ball very high in the air, higher than any normal human could, and caught it easily behind his back. “You ready?” he asked. When he saw Tony nod, mouth hanging open slightly, Peter smiled and threw the ball.

* * *

 

“So, how long they been playing, FRIDAY?” Rhodey asked, staring at the teen and his best friend playing catch under the night sky in the back field of the compound.

“Approximately one hour,” FRIDAY answered. “Would you like me to tell the Boss you are here?”

Watching as Tony laughed at some joke the kid must have said, and seeing Peter smile brightly, Rhodey shook his head, a small smile on his own lips. “Nah, s’ok. Tony always said that he would play catch with his son one day, I just wasn’t expecting to see that day be today.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for taking the time to read my work! Hope you enjoyed it, loves <3


	3. Sick Day Blues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter gets a bad case of the flu, and Tony worries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So first off, I am so sorry I haven't updated sooner! I'm in midterm season, and life always gets stressful in this season lol. I will of course keep updating this fic, but it might take a couple of days as I do have to study and go to work.
> 
> As always, thank you so much for all of your kind comments and kudos! They mean the world to me, and offer me motivation to continue writing whenever I get writer's block.
> 
> This chapter deals with illness and medical stuff, and I would just like to let everyone know I am currently not a doctor- I will be one in about six years, however. So just keep that in mind. I love to headcanon about Peter's enhanced biology, but it's of course not canon. It's what I believe would happen with an enhanced individual, and some stuff taken from older Spider-Man comics (from around the 70s and 80s, I don't think Peter can get sick in current Marvel continuity). 
> 
> I really hope you all enjoy the chapter!

“104.1. Higher than before, a lot higher,” May said as she stared worriedly at the thermometer in her hands. She looked down at Peter when she heard a groan coming from the bottom bunk of his bed.

“I’m fine, May. ‘S just a cold or something,” Peter murmured unconvincingly as he shivered. And he really thought so, especially since yesterday Ned had come into school with a cold. It seemed that half the school was sick with either the cold or flu. Even Flash had missed two days as he had come down with the flu. 

“You are not fine, Pete,” May scolded softly. “Your fever is rising, you threw up your breakfast, and the medicine isn’t helping you at all!” When Peter didn’t say anything she leaned against his desk and shook her head as she sighed, “I really don’t know what to do, kiddo, or how to help you. I can’t even take you to a hospital because of your abilities. I feel completely useless.”

Hearing how small his aunt sounded Peter wanted nothing more than to reassure her that she wasn’t useless, and that she was an amazing aunt and he would be fine. But he couldn’t. Even with his eyes closed it felt like the world was spinning around him, and he was worried that if he opened his mouth he would throw up the water he had recently drank. He felt pathetic as he continued to shiver weakly.

Peter could feel May’s gaze on him, and almost jumped when she huffed, “That’s it, I’m calling Tony.”

He forced his eyes to snap open, and tried not to pay attention to his spinning room as he gaped at Aunt May. “Wh-What?! Wait, no, no way, May, I’m fine! Ple-please, he doesn’t need to know. Plus he’s like super duper busy with, uh, Stark Industry stuff.” Truthfully Peter didn’t know if Mr. Stark was busy, but what he did know was that he didn’t want his mentor to know how sick he was. He was scared that Mr. Stark would think he was weak, because what kind of hero gets sick? Peter had finally gotten Mr. Stark to think of him as a legitimate hero after beating Toomes, and he didn’t want to ruin that by making the older man think Peter was some sick little kid.

But May just glared at the thermometer, and determinedly said, “I don’t care if he has a meeting with the damned President himself, I’m calling him because you are not fine.” Softening her voice slightly, she added, “You just get some more rest, Petey.” Turning on her heels, she marched out of his bedroom and most likely towards the kitchen. Peter moaned weakly as he closed his eyes.  _ Great, now Mr. Stark will know how weak I am.  _ Peter wanted to do what May had asked and just  _ sleep _ but he needed to hear the conversation between Mr. Stark and May.

From his room Peter heard May rummerging in her purse, most likely for her phone. Thanks to his enhanced hearing Peter could hear the dial tone perfectly, as if it was on speaker phone right next to his ears. The tone continued for another cycle before Mr. Stark breezily answers, “Why hello there Spider-Aunt, what can I do for you on this fine morning?” 

Peter could imagine his aunt rolling her eyes as she said, “We have a problem.”

The teen heard Mr. Stark groan as he warily asked, “What are you going to yell at me for now?”

“Nothing, but there’s something wrong with my kid,” Aunt May said. From his bed Peter heard the squeaks of one of the kitchen chairs, and he could guess that May had sat down. 

The phone was silent for another moment, before Mr. Stark asked in a much more serious voice than before, “What’s wrong with him?”

May sighed as she replied, “He came home yesterday from school with a slight fever. It wasn’t too bad at first, only 100.1. I gave him some tylenol, made him eat, and had him go to sleep early. He slept most of the night luckily, but this morning the fever was worse, at 102.3. I tried to get him to swallow down some light breakfast, but he threw it all up. I just checked his fever again and it’s over 104. It’s getting worse, he can barely keep liquids down, and I don’t know what to do because of his damned powers. Medicine isn’t working, and I just don’t know how to help my own kid.” Peter felt terrible when he heard the thick tears in his aunt’s voice, and he wanted to do was get out of bed and give her a big hug. But all he could do was lay there as his aunt cried over the phone to his childhood hero about what a pathetic sick kid he was. 

From the phone Peter heard Mr. Stark curse before saying, “The medicine isn’t working probably because of his advanced metabolism. It’s not enough.” There was a rustle as if Mr. Stark moved the phone away from his ear as he yelled out, “FRIDAY, call Helen. Send her the directions for the Queens building, and tell her it’s an emergency so she needs to get there ASAP. And tell Happy to get a car ready” To Aunt May he said, “I’m going to head over to your place right now. I’ll pick you both up, and take him to one of my buildings with a medcenter. I have a doctor on call who’s worked on people with enhanced abilities before, so she’ll be able to help the kid.”

May sniffled before murmuring, “Thank you, Tony. I just- I didn’t know who else to call.”

Peter heard the slam of a car door on Tony’s end before he replied, “May, no matter what happens, you can always count on me to help out the kid, or even you.”

Peter thought he heard May say something else but it became too muddled to understand. A moment later he lost the battle against sleep as the world around him became blank.

 

* * *

 

Peter felt weird. He couldn’t open his eyes, but he could tell he was awake. Or, at least he thought so because this didn’t feel like any dream or nightmare he had had before. He felt the back of a cool hand on his forehead, and he whined because it was  _ so cold _ . He felt as if he was freezing, like that time Uncle Ben had taken him to Central Park after a heavy snowfall and a mountain of freshly shoveled snow fell on him.   

“Jeez, he’s really burning up,” a familiar male voice said. Finally finding the strength to crack open his eyes, Peter saw Mr. Stark with one hand on Peter’s forehead as he looked over his shoulder to someone else.

“Mista St’rk?” Peter groggily asked.

Quickly turning back to him, Mr. Stark gave him a small smile, though it didn’t mask the gleam of concern in his eyes. “Hey kid, heard you were sick. I’m here to take you to someone who can help you.”

Peter closed his eyes as he whimpered, “Don’t wanna. ‘S too cold.” Peter heard the footsteps of someone else come closer, and another cold hand touched his forehead.

“Oh God, he’s a lot warmer!” Aunt May (or atleast Peter thought it was May, it was hard to tell with the pounding in his head) exclaimed.

“We need to take him to Cho  _ now _ ,” Tony said to May. Turning back to Peter, he whispered, “Sorry kiddo, but you really need a doctor.”

Peter wanted to protest that  _ no, he didn’t need a doctor, he just wanted to be in bed and be warm and to sleep thank you very much _ but before he could voice his protests, he felt someone drape a blanket over him. A moment later he felt someone else push an arm under his knees and back, and he was picked up and held against a hard chest. 

“Wh-what?” Peter asked. He opened his eyes and immediately regretted it. It was so bright, brighter than usual and it made the pounding in his head so much worse. This was almost as bad as when he had gotten sick directly after being bitten by that spider. 

Whoever was carrying him quickly walked out of his bedroom door and into the living room. Honestly Peter didn't care where they were going, he just wanted to escape the freezing cold that had settled in the apartment. He clutched the blanket in his hands as he burrowed his head into the shoulder of whoever was carrying him. The arms around him tightened as they left the apartment. 

“Happy’s waiting outside,” Mr. Stark told Aunt May. Peter realized it must of been him who was carrying him, but he was too tired and cold to care anymore. 

By the time the trio made it to the waiting car, Peter had passed out again. 

 

* * *

 

“-fever over 110, not normal-”

“Start an ice bath and-

“-inject him with morphine, need to-”

“Peter it's ok! Just go back-”

“-not holding down liquids.”

“-enhanced abilities-”

 

* * *

 

Peter rejoined the waking world in bits and pieces. He heard the repetitiveness of a beeping sound near him, and whirring of machines somewhere further away. He also felt the softest blankets he had ever felt in his whole life settled over him, and he smelled that distinctive smell of  _ hospital _ in the air around him. He slowly opened his eyes, and blinked as he was met with a softly-lit room. 

The bed he was on (a hospital bed, it looked like) was reclined on an angle, so Peter was able to lazily glance around the room. He almost started when he saw Mr. Stark sitting right next to him. The older man was sitting on a chair, staring down at Stark tablet in his hands.

Peter couldn't help but notice that Mr. Stark looked completely different than he usually did. His hair was mused and not styled, and he was missing his usual business suit and pants. Instead, he was wearing sweatpants and an MIT alumni hoodie. There were dark circles under the man’s eyes, contrasting his pale skin. The teen had never seen Mr. Stark look so unkempt. 

Peter coughed and called out timidly, “Mr. Stark?” Tony immediately snapped his head up as he dropped the tablet on the table near him. From the chair he leaned towards Peter, one hand on the teens head and an expression of relief on his face.

“Hey kiddo, I’m so glad to see you awake,” Mr. Stark said honestly.

“Where am I? What happened?” Peter asked. His mind still felt fuzzy, and the last thing he could remember was May taking his temperature in their apartment.

Tony furrowed his eyebrows. With a slight frown, he answered, “You got real sick. Your temperature was way too high, higher than it should be for a normal human. Your aunt called me in a panic, and we brought you here for Dr. Cho to check you over.”

“Dr. Cho? Wait, what about my secret identity?” Peter questioned with wide eyes. The heart monitor that was hooked up to him began to beep faster.

“Hey, calm down, it’s ok. Dr. Cho is trustworthy, I would never reveal your secret to someone who you couldn’t trust. She’s a great doctor, she’s probably the best at treating enhanced humans, plus she’s treated all of the Avengers at some point,” Tony soothed as he rubbed a hand up and down Peter’s right arm. The heart monitor began to beep normally. “You good now?”

“Y-yeah,” Peter answered, leaning back against the bed as he closed his eyes. “What did I even have?”

“I believe I can answer that,” a feminine voice called out. From the doorway a woman wearing a lab coat strolled in, heels clicking against the ivory floor tiles. She smiled warmly at Peter. “We haven’t met while you were conscious and lucid, Mr. Parker. My name is Doctor Helen Cho, Tony called me in to treat you.”

“Oh, uh, hello,” Peter stuttered out.

Dr. Cho’s smile widened, and she turned to Mr. Stark. “You were right, he is much more adorable when awake.”

Peter felt himself blush as Tony chuckled next to him. “Yep, that he is.” Peter turned to glare daggers at the man, before he realized someone important was missing from the room.

“Where’s my Aunt May?”

“At work, kiddo,” Tony answered.

“Work? But it’s Saturday, she’s not supposed to work on Saturdays,” Peter protested. He became concerned when Dr. Cho and Tony exchanged a long look. “What’s wrong? Is she ok? Oh God did something happen, what-”

“Kid, kiddo, calm down,” Tony said as he got up to better comfort Peter. “She’s fine, but she’s at work because it’s not Saturday anymore, it’s Monday. FRIDAY has most likely already alerted her that you’re awake.”   
“I sent her a text as soon as Peter woke up,” the disembodied voice of FRIDAY confirmed. 

“Oh good,” Peter breathed in relief as he closed his eyes. He snapped them open a moment later when his mind processed what Mr. Stark had said. “Wait, Monday? But yesterday was Friday! So it’s Saturday.” 

“I’m afraid you’ve missed a couple of days,” Dr. Cho said with a shake of her head. “You were brought into my care late Saturday morning, already unconscious because of your high fever. You’ve been in and out of consciousness since then, though this is the first time that you have been lucid.”   
Peter stared at her for a moment, before turning his shocked gaze over to Mr. Stark. “Seriously? I thought it was just the cold or something, Ned was sick with it on Friday.”

“Why don’t you let the good doctor explain that for you,” Mr. Stark suggested, taking a seat on the bed as he wrapped an arm around the teens shoulders. Peter turned expectly over to Dr. Cho.

“You are the first enhanced teenager I’ve ever taken a look at,” Dr. Cho began, “but your sickness was fairly simple to diagnose. You just had a simple case of the flu, but your enhanced DNA caused your body to overreact. Had you not had your mutated DNA, you most likely would have only been sick for a few days, though you would not have had such a high fever, nor would you have been rendered unconscious for so long. However, your enhanced healing factor overcompensated your body’s natural immune systems, causing it to go into a state of overdrive. That’s why all of your symptoms became so much more stronger, your body was trying to get rid of the illness quicker than normal, but with the negative side effect of all the symptoms slipping into a dangerous territory.

“Along with that, normal medicine no longer works for you. While simple Tylenol, Advil, or prescription drugs will help an individual fight the effects of a sickness over a period of time, your body metabolizes them faster than they can affect you. My team and I needed to make a whole new medication with a higher level of concentration just to even lower your fever. I’ll be sure to share the formula with Stark’s database just in case you, or anyone with a similar biology as you, needs it in the future.”

“So wait… you’re telling me my enhanced healing and metabolism, the things that usually keep me alive and healthy most of the time, actually almost killed me?” Peter asked incredulously.

“Well, luckily you were never close to death, but we were concerned over you as the fever was becoming too high for even an enhanced individual. However, in essence, you are correct,” Dr. Cho admitted. “You will have to be much more careful in the future. As soon as you notice any symptoms of an illness, even if you believe it is the common cold, you will need to see either me or another doctor who understands your biology well enough to treat you before your body goes into an overdrive state again.”

“Huh,” was all that Peter said. His mind was still trying to process the whole  _ the flu made you unconscious for like two days _ thing. “So, am I ok now?”

“At this point, you are.” Dr. Cho smiled. “Your fever dropped last night, and your body is reacting positively to the fluid treatments. I’d estimate that you will be able to be released from the medcenter tomorrow morning.”   
“That’s great,” Peter grinned. “At least I won’t have to make up a ton of school work.”   
“Seriously, kid,” Mr. Stark laughed. “When I was your age I’d already be planning on finding a way to miss as much class time as possible. Hell, I’d even pretend to be sick for a couple of extra days!”

“That’s lying, Mr. Stark,” Peter frowned. “Plus I’d just have to make up a lot more work.”

Tony tousled the teen’s hair. “You’re such a goody-two-shoes, how you even managed to lie to May about your night time activities I’ll never know.”

“Mr. Stark, stop! You’re being annoying,” Peter whined, trying to escape from the man’s clutches as he threw an embarrassed glance at the amused looking Dr. Cho. Tony just chuckled as he got up and went back to sitting on the chair.

“Well, I am very happy to see you are feeling a lot better, Peter,” Dr. Cho said. “We’ll start on solid food later in the day, and if all goes well, you’ll be released tomorrow morning, though I would caution you not to return to school until Thursday. I wouldn’t want you to spread such a contagious sickness in a breeding ground like a school during flu season. I’ll give your aunt a doctor’s note to send to your school when I see her.”

“Thank you Dr. Cho, for the note and for everything,” Peter smiled towards her.

“You are very welcome, Peter. If you need me, whether to answer more questions or if your fever returns, do not hesitate to have FRIDAY call me.” To Tony, Dr. Cho said, “I will be in the lab with the team. I’ll have FRIDAY record any more drug discoveries we find that can benefit enhanced individuals.” With that, she turned and and exited the room.

“I can’t believe I missed the whole weekend,” Peter groaned as he leaned back on the bed. “I had so much stuff planned!”

“What, building more LEGO sets with Ned?” Tony joked.

“Shut up!” Peter said in mock-outrage. The room was silent for a few moments before Tony broke it.

“You know, really had your aunt worried,” Tony said. In a smaller voice, he added, “And me too.”

“I thought Dr. Cho said I was never close to death?” Peter asked as he knit his eyebrows together.

Tony just shook his head. “You do realize that we still worry even if you’re not on death’s door, right? We worry whenever you get hurt on patrol, and we’ll worry if you get sick.”

“But heroes aren’t supposed to get sick,” Peter mumbled, looking at his hands. “Only little kids are supposed to get so sick.” He heard Mr. Stark sigh next to him, before the man cupped a hand on Peter’s chin. Tony gently turned the teens face towards him, and he had a serious but still affectionate look on his face.

“I’ve spent enough time with you to know how much of you self-deprecate yourself, kid, so listen to me when I say that’s totally normal and ok for you to sick. Everyone gets sick, including heroes. You wouldn’t believe how many times the good ol’ Captain came down with the stomach bug,” Tony smiled wryly. Turning serious again, he added, “And me too. I’ve been sick a ton of times, and I’m still a hero. So Spider-Man can still be a hero if the flu brought him down for a few days. He’ll just bounce back, and better than before.”   
“Thanks Mr. Stark,” Peter whispered. Tony smiled and tapped him on the cheek as he leaned back against the chair.

“No problem, kiddo.” 

The two were silent once more, before FRIDAY informed them, “May Parker just answered back. She says she won’t be able to leave work until her shift finishes at 4PM, but she’ll head over as soon as she’s out.”   
“How’s she gonna head over to the Avengers compound from the city?” Peter asked confusedly. 

Tony chuckled. “Kid, we’re not in the Avengers compound, we’re in one of my other buildings, near to Queens.”   
Peter raised an eyebrow. “When’d you get a new building? And why near Queens, it’s not like it’s any good for business since it's pretty far from your main headquarters in Manhattan.” He swore he could see the beginning of a blush on the man's face as he avoided Peter’s eye.

“I bought it a month ago. It’s not supposed to be for S.I. stuff, it’s for you. Well, you know, if you ever get hurt or something on patrol and you need help quick. The building’s close to your apartment, and has a full medcenter. Plus, there’s even a lab so you and me don’t always have to travel to the compound to work on our projects. And I figured that when you wanted to have a movie marathon or something like that, you’ll be able to stay over the night whenever you want, even on weekdays.” Tony paused before he lamely added, “Well, I mean, with your aunt’s permission, of course.”

Peter stared at his mentor before his face broke out in a wide grin. “Holy crap, thank you Mr. Stark! You’re the best!”

Tony scoffed good naturedly, “Honestly it’s nothing, kiddo, what’s the price of a building to a billionaire like me?”

Peter didn’t answer, though he continued to beam at his hero. As much as Tony would vehemently deny it, the man had a heart of gold somewhere under that armour (both literal and metaphorical) of his.

“So, is the lab big?” Peter asked excitedly. “Do I get another room? Oh, can we give one to Ned? He’d love that! And Aunt May, too, of course! I can’t wait to see the look on her face!” Peter continued to prattle on in excitement as Tony shook his head fondly.

_ What did I do to deserve such a good kid? _ Tony wondered as he watched his kid continue to babble. Whatever the reason, he was just glad that Peter Parker was a part of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thanks for taking the time to read my fic! Let me know if there's any grammar/spelling mistakes, and if you would like to see anything in the future. Have a wonderful day/night, everyone! <3


	4. Bullies & Ballparks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony gets a call from Peter's school, and of all of the things he wasn't expecting this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so can I just say sorry for taking so long to update this fic? I swear it wasn't my intention, but life suddenly hit me hard! I had another round of midterms last week which took up every spare second of my life, which sucked because what I really wanted to do was write more of this fic.  
> On top of that, this actually wasn't supposed to be the next chapter of this fic. I had originally planned on writing a chapter where Tony takes Peter camping, but that somehow ballooned into a multi chapter fic Tony gets captured, and Peter has to go rescue his Iron Dad while hurt all by himself. I'll probably post that after my finals in about three weeks. But yeah, I was down a chapter so this came out of left-field (pun intended).  
> I hope everyone likes it, I personally felt it came out a bit weak but I was dying to post something. Thanks to everyone who''s commented, kudo-ed, and read this fic, it means a lot to me! Now onto the chapter. And please don't hesitate in telling me of any grammar/spelling/character mistakes!

“FRIDAY, why did you lower my music? I told you I didn’t want to be disturbed for the next hour,” Tony said, not looking up as he continued to tear apart one of his older-model jet boots. 

It was a Tuesday, which meant that Peter would be coming over to act the part of the over eager intern that he officially was now. For today’s project Tony planned to have the kid put the boot jet back together from scratch. After months of lab safety training sessions and age-appropriate engineering projects, Tony felt that the kid was finally ready to start working on more advanced tech, namely his own Iron Man suits. He couldn’t wait to see the look on Peter’s face when he came over.

“Sorry Boss, but you have received a call from Midtown School of Science and Technology in regards to a situation involving Peter. I put them on hold, should I put you through?” FRIDAY asked calmly. 

“What? Of course, and put it through to my phone,” Tony ordered, dropping the mangled boot jet on the lab bench as he stood up to retrieve his nearby phone. He quickly grabbed his phone and put it to his ear. “Hello? Who is this?”

“Hello, my name is Ken Morita, I am the principal of Midtown School of Science and Technology,” a serious sounding voice intoned. “This number was listed as the emergency contact of Peter Parker in the case that his guardian could not be reached, however it was listed with a fake name. May I know to whom I am speaking to?”

“This is Tony Stark. And yes, it really is him,” Tony answered. There was shocked silence on the other side, but where Tony would usually feel some sort of cynical satisfaction all he felt was impatience and a touch of fear because  _ of course _ something had happened to Peter. At this rate the kid was going to give him a full head of grey hair by the end of the year.

Morita coughed on the other side in obvious surprise before continuing, “Uh, well hello Mr. Stark, I wasn’t sure if Peter was being serious or not, but I can see now that he was. Anyway, I need either you or May Parker to come and pick up Peter as he is being suspended for fighting with another student.”

“Wait,  _ what _ ?” Tony asked, now his turn to be surprised. Of all the things that he was expecting, this was not even on the spectrum of things that he thought would happen with Peter. The kid was so gentle and light-hearted that Tony had never even seen him truly get angry, not even against the criminals he fought on a daily basis. Annoyed sure, sometimes even pissed, but never truly angry to where he would start a physical altercation. “Are you sure we’re talking about the right Peter Parker? Fluffy brown hair, kind of short, literally one of the most well-behaved teenagers on the face of the planet?”

“I know it may seem shocking, Mr. Stark, but I can assure you we are talking about the right Peter Parker,” Morita responded wryly. “However, as I can guess you want to know the full situation, I would suggest you to come down to the school at your earliest convenience as I can better explain what happened in person.”   
“Alright sure, I’ll be there in a half hour,” Tony promised, grabbing his suit jacket as he ran to the garage for a car. He silently thanked his luck that he was in his new Queens building today instead of the Avengers compound. If he sped just a bit he could even get to Peter’s school in twenty minutes.

“Perfect, when you come in please use the visitor’s entrance,” Morita advised. “See you soon Mr. Stark.”

Unlike the Avenger’s compound Tony didn’t keep too many cars in the Queens building. He kept his favored R8 in the garage (mostly because Peter loved to practice driving in that car, to the point where Tony even considered giving it to him, though he was sure May would throw a fit if he did that), along with four more cars that didn’t draw as much attention. Tony briefly thought about taking his most inconspicuous vehicle, but finally decided to take the R8 since it was his fastest car.

He practically lept into the car as he started it with the wireless remote. Where normally Tony would appreciate his favorite car for a moment before driving he now instead put it into gear and sped off towards Peter’s school. He needed to make sure his kid was ok  _ right now _ .

 

* * *

 

Just like Tony thought it didn’t take him a half hour to get to Midtown High School. It didn’t even take him twenty minutes. In fact, Tony managed to get there within fifteen minutes by speeding and breaking most traffic laws.

He parked his car nearby to the school and got out. He spotted the visitor’s entrance and smoothly went up to the secretary inside. She looked pretty young, most likely still in college.

“Hello, I’m here for a meeting with Principal Morita,” Tony informed her.

The secretary, who hadn’t looked up from the paperwork in front of her, hummed in acknowledgement before replying, “Mr. Morita is currently in a meeting with another set of parents at the moment. You’ll have to wait a moment.”   
“That’s fine, but I would like to see my…” Tony trailed off as he realized he didn’t quite know how to address Peter as. It would seem odd to say  _ intern _ because it seemed so formal, but he couldn’t exactly say  _ son  _ either. Finally, he finished lamely, “ _ Kid _ before the meeting. His name’s Peter Parker, and Morita told me he got into a fight, so I just wanted to make sure he’s alright.”

“That’s fine, he’s in another room waiting to speak to you and Mr. Morita. I’ll take you to him.” The secretary finally picked up her head, and Tony could see the moment when she realized exactly who he was. Her brown eyes widened as she breathed, “Holy crap, Tony Stark?”

“In the flesh,” he winked. “Now take me to my kid, please.”

To the secretary’s credit she merely nodded before leading him down the hall to what looked like a lounge area. From the window on the door Tony could see Peter laying down on a couch, a hand lifted to his face to hold a bag of ice against his left eye. Before he entered, he turned to the secretary and said, “I would really appreciate it if you didn’t inform too many people that I’m here. I’d like to keep it on the down-low, for Peter’s sake at least.”

The secretary smiled slightly and inclined her head. “Of course, I understand completely. I’ll come get both of you when Mr. Morita is ready.” She turned to walk away before she hesitatingly turned back. “And Mr. Stark? I know it’s not my place to comment on situations like these to a parent or guardian, but go easy on Peter. The fight wasn’t his fault, the other boy was teasing him and his friend. Pete’s normally such a well-behaved boy, but I can’t say the same about the other student.”

Tony blinked at the secretary before giving her a real smile. “Thank you so much for telling me that.”   
“No problem, Mr. Stark, tell Peter I hope his eye is feeling better.” With that the secretary turned on her heels and walked back down the hall.

Glancing once again to Peter, Tony took a deep breath and opened the door. By the time he closed the door behind him Peter had gotten up to sit in an upright position. He also took off the bag of ice from his eye, revealing a deeply bruised left side of his face, and Tony could feel his anger rise because  _ someone _ had hurt his kid.

Before Tony could even address Peter the kid spoke up first. “I am so beyond sorry they called you, Mr. Stark,” Peter said, eyes downcast as he fidgeted with the bag of ice in his hands. “They tried calling May first but she didn’t answer because she’s working. I told them you were probably busy, too, but they didn’t really believe me when I said you were actually Tony Stark. I don’t know why May put you as my emergency contact, I think she couldn’t think of anyone else to put down. But I swear if I would have known I wouldn’t have handed in the stupid paper because I know you’re always really busy and don’t have time to deal with stupid school emergencies and stuff. I’m really sorry for making you deal with this,” Peter babbled, voice wavering and breathing coming out quick.

“Hey, hey, kiddo calm down, it’s ok,” Tony soothed as he went to sit down next to Peter. He tentatively put his left arm around the kid’s shoulders, and squeezed when he felt Peter lean against his side. “I was the one to suggest to May to put me down as your emergency contact.”   
“Huh?” Peter blinked up at him. “Why would you do that?”

“What do you mean ‘why,’ kid? For someone so smart, you sure can ask some pretty dumb questions,” Tony groaned with a shake of his head. “Pete, if something happens to you, I would want to know, especially if your school couldn't get into contact with May. I told May to put me down because I know you two don't have anymore family in the area, and even if I wasn't in the city I could always just fly out here in the blink of an eye. Don't ever think I'm too busy to help you, kiddie.”

“Oh,” Peter said shyly, looking down at his feet as he gave a small smile. “Thanks Mr. Stark.”

“No need to thank me, but what I would like is your side of the story because I know you, and Peter Parker doesn't just get into a fight in school for no reason.”

Peter bit his bottom lip, one hand fidgeting with the bag of ice and the other clenched tightly with his nails digging into his palm. Tony noticed what Peter was doing, and gently unclenched the boy’s hand before he could draw blood from himself. “We talked about this kid, no using your nails on your palm.”

“S-sorry,” Peter stammered, “it just, y’know, grounds me to the moment.” He took a shaky breath as he closed his eyes. When he opened them he stared dully at the wall opposite of them. “The fight was my fault.”

Tony knit his eyebrows. “That wasn't what the secretary told me outside. She said whoever beat on you was teasing you first. So how about you start your story there, and no blaming yourself while telling it.”

Peter frowned, but nodded. “It was lunch period. Ned and I were sitting in our usual place, just talking and stuff. And then, well this kid name Flash came up to us to ask if Ned could do his Matlab homework for him. Ned being Ned said no, but he offered to help Flash do it, but, uh, Flash got really pissed. He started to call Ned a fatty, and told him the reason he couldn't get a date to the spring fling was because he was so fat and stuff like that. I know that hurt Ned, so I told Flash to back off. I don't know, I guess stuff started escalating because all of a sudden Flash said…” Peter grimaced as he trailed of. He went back to staring at his hands, but Tony could see the tears glistening in his eyes. 

“What did he say?” Tony asked seriously. 

Peter didn't speak for a moment, just breathing in a way that told Tony the kid was trying to keep the tears at bay. Tony squeezed the boy’s shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. It seemed to work as Peter’s breathing grew less heavy. He sniffled slightly as he continued his story. “Flash has always been bothering me, since eighth grade. I don't know why, but it's always me. But he’s never been so, um,  _ cruel _ before because he said… He said the reason why my parents and Uncle Ben died was because they didn't want to be around some  _ freak _ like me. That I'm cursed, and everyone I love is gonna die one day and leave me all alone.” By the time Peter finished he was whispering, but Tony could still hear the _ hurt  _ in his voice. 

“What the actual living fu- I mean frack,” Tony seethed, barely managing to censor himself. He could feel his gut clench anger as he mulled over Peter’s story in his head. “So you’re telling me some little asshole said that crap to you, brought up your dead family to hurt you, just because your best friend didn't want to help him cheat? That's bullshit, if you look like that I hope the other kid looks much worse.”

Peter’s eyes widened. “No! Don't say that! I shouldn't have hit him. I mean, I only punched him the one first time and that's it.”

Tony couldn't help himself, he had to get up and pace. “You didn't even try to defend yourself? Why the Hell not!”

“Because I’m just Peter Parker!” Peter snapped, also getting up. Before Tony could argue back the kid continued, “In school I’m just Peter Parker, not,” Peter paused to lower his voice considerably, “I’m not  _ Spider-Man. _ Before the bite I couldn't defend myself and just had to take Flash’s crap. And yeah, now I can defend myself. I know I could have knocked him down with one shove, but guess what? That's something Spider-Man would do, not  _ Penis Parker,”  _ Peter spat out the name like a curse. “If I couldn't defend myself before the bite than I shouldn't be able to defend myself now. 

“Plus, even if I did disregard that, what if I actually hurt Flash? Because when I first punched him I completely blanked out. It's like one second he said that and the next the cafeteria is silent and Flash is holding his cheek. I’m lucky I didn't hurt him badly, what if I can’t control my strength completely Mr. Stark? I don't want to hurt anyone, not even him. That's why I let him knock me down to the floor, and why I let him just do this,” Peter gestured to his face, “to me. I can’t use my powers irresponsibly, even to defend myself against someone like Flash.”

A moment passed where Tony and Peter stared at each other before Tony rubbed his face. “Ah, geez kid, you're going to be the death of me one day. Sit down and listen to what I have to say.” Peter opened his mouth to protest but Tony just pointed to the couch. “ _ Sit.”  _ Peter pursed his lips but ultimately did as he was told. 

Tony stood in front of him, arms crossed and face set in stone. “Now you listen here, kid, I don't care about whatever warped sense of responsibility you've got going on in your head. You can’t just lay there and let someone try to break your face in! You have to defend yourself. I know it’s hard to hold back your full strength, but I know you can do it. If you could do it while fighting criminals at night you can definitely do it against some punk ass kid that’s messing with you. You defending yourself is not being irresponsible, it’s being smart. And if you need some training on hold back your strength then just  _ tell me _ , I know some pretty great trainers who have worked with enhanced individuals and I’m sure they can help you too.”

Throughout Tony’s little speech Peter stared at his converse-clad feet, before glancing uncertainly at the window facing the backfield of the school. He sighed deeply. “I just- I don’t want to hurt anyone, Mr. Stark. I don’t want to be a freak.”

“Aw, kiddo, you’re not a freak,” Tony assured him quickly, sitting back down next to him. “I don’t care what some snot nosed kid said, or what anyone else thinks. You are the furthest thing from a freak. Yeah sure, is it weird that you sometimes sit on the ceiling while doing homework? Or that you can lift a bus with one hand? Yeah probably. But just because you have some kickass powers doesn’t make you a freak.”

It finally seemed that what Tony was saying made it through Peter’s thick head. The boy’s shoulders lost most of the tension they previously had, and he even managed to give a shadow of usual smile. “Sitting on the ceiling is not weird, Mr. Stark, you should try it sometime. Maybe you’ll actually get some good ideas for once.”

Tony narrowed his eyes in mock outrage. “That’s it, this is the last time I try to make you feel better you annoying child.”

Peter laughed, and Tony couldn’t help but laugh along with him. He would never admit it to anyone, but he loved the kid’s laugh. It was carefree and innocent, two things that Tony hadn’t been in a long time, since before his parents’ deaths. Peter smiled brightly, and was about to say something when someone knocked on the door. The two looked up, and the secretary that Tony had met before walked in. “Mr. Morita can see both of you now.”

Tony could see Peter’s previous tension return to his shoulders, so he deliberately teased, “Let’s get this show on the road, kid. We have a big project to work on later this evening.”

The duo got up and followed the secretary to the Principal’s office. On the bench outside say three people, a woman, man, and a boy Peter’s age in between the two. Tony made sure to keep his poker mask in place, but inwardly he curled his lip in disgust. It didn’t take a tech genius to realize that this was the same kid who had bullied Peter. 

The boy, who had been staring at a phone on his lap, looked up, and his face lost all colour as he realized who was in front of him. “Oh my God, it’s actually Tony Stark. Parker wasn’t lying.”

Tony so badly wanted to snark back at the boy sardonically, but he felt Peter pull on his jacket sleeve to get him to enter the office.  _ Probably for the best _ , Tony thought,  _ the press would have a field day if they found out Tony Stark screamed at a minor. _

“Hello Mr. Stark, Peter,” a man who Tony assumed was Mr. Morita greeted them. “Just take a seat please.”

“Hi again, Mr. Moriata,” Peter said, eyes downwards. “I told you I wasn’t lying about my emergency contact being Mr. Stark.”

“I can see that, Peter,” Morita chuckled. “I’m very sorry that Mrs. Abels and I doubted you, but you wouldn’t believe how many times students have written down a celebrity as their emergency contact.” Morita turned towards Tony next as he said, “I’m assuming Peter told you what happened between him and Mr. Thompson today at lunch. Am I correct?”

“You are,” Tony confirmed.

“Well, as I’m sure you are aware, Midtown High has a strict zero tolerance for violence on school grounds, even if it may have been slightly warranted,” Morita said, glancing at Peter in quiet apology. “Because of that I do have to suspend Peter from school.”

“So wait, even though the other student basically tried to cheat and bully one student, and then bully Peter for standing up for his friend, Peter’s the one that’s going to get in trouble? How is that fair,” Tony scoffed.

Morita sighed as he leaned forward across the desk. “I’ll be frank with you, Mr. Stark: my hands are tied. I know what Mr. Thompson said to Peter, and while violence is never the answer, I also know that even kids have a snapping point. What Mr. Thompson said was completely out of line, and in terrible taste. And I can assure you that Mr. Thompson is not only being suspended for two weeks for the bullying and violence, but he is also being given a zero on his Matlab project for attempting to cheat. However, because of Midtown’s zero tolerance for violence, I do also have to punish Peter for throwing the first punch.”

Before Tony could protest further Peter spoke up. “It’s ok, Mr. Morita, I get it. I shouldn’t have let Flash get me so wound up, or punch him in the face. Is he ok?”

Mr. Morita smiled warmly at Peter. “He’s perfectly fine. You didn’t even leave a bruise on him.”

Peter bobbed his head in relief. “That’s good. I’m really sorry about all of this.”

“Don’t worry about it, Peter. But let me just apologize that you didn’t feel comfortable going up to me or any of your other teachers in regards to Mr. Thompson bullying you at any point before today. Mr. Leeds told me this has been going on for a while now.”

“Seriously, Peter?” Tony turned to stare incredulously at the kid. “You should have said something to your Aunt or me earlier, it’s what we’re here for, bud.”

Peter bit his lip. “I thought I could handle it.”

“Peter, please promise me that in the future, if Mr. Thompson bothers you or anyone else again, you will come directly to me or a staff member,” Morita implored. “I don’t want a bullying issue at this school.”   
“I promise to try, Mr. Morita,” Peter agreed.

“Thank you. And because you have cooperated with me today, along with the circumstances surrounding this altercation between you and Mr. Thompson, I have decided to give you the most lenient punishment I can. You’ll only be suspended for the rest of today. So think of it like a free day off,” Morita joked.

“Thank you so much Mr. Morita,” Peter said, a relieved smile lighting up his face.

“Not a problem, Peter.” Morita turned to look at Tony. “Do you have any further questions or concerns Mr. Stark?”

“Call me Tony, please,” Tony chuckled. “And nah, thanks for being fair with Peter. But since he obviously has communication issues, if he ever has bullying problems again please let either me or May know.”   
“Mr. Stark!” Peter groaned.

“Sorry kid, should have told us about it before,” Tony smirked.

Morita laughed. “He’s got you there, Peter. I’ll keep in touch in the future Tony. You can sign Peter out with Ms. Stolt at the visitor’s entrance. See you Monday, Peter.”

“Bye Mr. Morita!” Peter chirped, while Tony just nodded his thanks to Morita. 

The two left the office, and Tony couldn’t help but glare at Flash who was still sitting outside. The boy paled and his eyes widened, and Tony felt a surge of petty victory as he walked away. He wondered if it would be frowned upon if he visited that little asshole in full Iron Man armour and told him to leave Peter alone.  _ Eh, Pepper could deal with the fallout _ , Tony mused to himself.

 

* * *

 

 

“Now what?” Peter asked as he got into the passenger seat of the R8.

“Now you put on your seatbelt,” Tony advised, putting on a pair of sunglasses as he smirked at Peter’s over-exaggerated eye roll.

“You’re so annoying,” Peter grumbled as he clicked the seatbelt into place. “I meant what are we gonna do now? I mean it’s like only 1, I wasn’t supposed to meet with you until 4. I can go home and patrol for now if you’re busy?”

“Hm, great suggestion but I have an even better idea,” Tony announced as an idea came to mind.

“What did you have in mind?” Peter asked curiously.

“Just wait and see, kiddo,” Tony smiled as he turned onto Flushing Ave. 

 

* * *

 

 

“How’d you get us the best seats so quick?” Peter marveled breathlessly, taking in the view of Citi Field from behind the seats of Home Plate.

Tony couldn’t help but laugh. “When are you going to remember that I’m one of the richest men in the world?”

“Shut up,” Peter mumbled, with no real heat in his voice as he stared in amazement at the players on the field.

“Did you want anymore things from the store?”   
“No!” Peter answered quickly, playing with the hem of his new Mets jersey in one hand while he straightened out his Mets cap on his head with the other hand. “I mean, thanks so much for buying me all this stuff, but you spent way too much! It’s cheaper at Modells or something.” 

Tony rolled his eyes fondly. “Again, kid, billionaire. I could buy the Mets for you and it still wouldn’t put a dent in my wallet. In fact, how would you like to own the Mets? Your birthday is coming up.”

Peter’s eyes widen as he sputtered out, “Mr. Stark, that's beyond way too much, Aunt May would literally kill you.”

“Hm, that is true, not even I would cross your aunt intentionally,” Tony jokingly shivered, earning a full laugh from Peter.

“In all seriousness, thanks Mr. Stark,” Peter said shyly, fiddeling with the hem of his jersey. “Not just for bringing me to the game or buying me new Mets gear, but for picking me up and dealing with everything. It means a lot.”   
Tony just smiled affectionately down at this kid who managed to become such an important part of his life. He slung an arm around the teen’s shoulders and promised, “Anytime, kiddie. I’ll always have your back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for taking the time to read this chapter! Also, out of curiosity, would anyone be interested in a "The Last of Us" Iron Dad & Spider-Son AU fic? I dunno, the idea came to me the other day when I was listening to the OST. For those of you who don't know what that game is about, it tells the story of a man named Joel living in a post apocalyptic future (think kind of like zombies, but not exactly- more like mutated humans who try to turn other humans into these scary mutations) who has to take care of a young teen named Ellie, a headstrong girl who holds the cure that could stop the spread of the mutation and save humanity. I love the father-daughter relationship between Joel & Ellie, it's honestly the best part of the game, and it would be kind of interesting to try to write a fic in that world featuring Tony & Peter as Joel & Ellie do remind me of them. But I don't know, what do you guys think? Let me know if you can!
> 
> (Psst, I made a Tumblr! Ok, well, I've had a Tumblr for a while now, but I've never really used it other than to like posts and stuff like that. However, I honestly want to use it more often to share updates and take you guys' prompts! So if you want to share a prompt with me to write, go follow me! Username is the same as my AO3 name, CaptainStarsong)


	5. I Have a Bad Filling About This

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Peter has a deep fear of the dentist, and it's Iron Dad and Supermom May to the rescue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the delay! Explanation in the notes at the end. Also, sorry in advanced for the dentist/Star Wars pun, I couldn't resist. Please enjoy!

The last time Peter had ever been to the dentist was when he was 9 years old. The memory itself was blurry as he had been in a state of panic for the whole day. He had tried everything to get out of the appointment, even resorting to trying to run away to Flushing Meadows. However, it had proved to be a futile plan, and with the combined forces of Ben and May he was dragged to the dentist’s office.

The whole time in the waiting room Ben held him as he cried and begged to leave. Peter’s sobbings grew even worse as Ben carried him to the examination room. It took more than two hours for the whole visit to be done as the dentist had to fix a cavity, which had made him panic even further. While he couldn’t remember much of what was done to him, he did clearly remember the fear and panic he felt as two nurses held him down while the dentist worked on his back molars. 

Five months after that May had tried to make an appointment for him once again. However, the receptionist had informed her that Uncle Ben’s health insurance had been slashed drastically, which meant that dental visits was no longer covered for any of them. The receptionist had told her they could pay the fee out of pocket, but Ben and May’s combined budgets could not afford the steep fee. On one hand Peter knew he should be worried that his family’s insurance had been lowered, but he couldn’t help the childish relief that had settled in his chest when May had told him that he would no longer be going to the dentist any time soon. And for the next seven years his luck held firm. 

However, like always, his luck did not hold out forever.  

* * *

 

It was a Tuesday when May told him the news.

“So Pete,” May began slowly as she twirled a piece of spaghetti with her fork, “You remember how I was promoted at work last week?”

“Yeah?” Peter answered, glancing over at his aunt curiously.

“Well, turns out that there were some more benefits than what I was told,” May smiled slightly.    
“That’s great, May! Is it more vacation days? Cuz you really deserve them.”

May laughed. “No, I wish! It’s actually something more useful than that.”   


“What is it then?” Peter asked, tilting his head to the side. For some reason he could feel a warning go off in his head, but he tried to ignore it. 

May took a deep breath and beamed at her nephew. “You and I now have full health benefits!”

Peter began to smile but froze as realization hit him. Blinking slowly he tried muster a shaky smile. “I mean, t-that’s awesome May. I’m glad, I know you’ve been wanting to see an eye doctor for forever.”

May hummed approvingly. “I already made an appointment for next week. But Peter, that’s not the only reason why I’m telling you this.”

Peter paled as his worst fears were realized. “Please don’t say what I think you’re about to say.”

“I’m really sorry, baby,” May sighed as she gripped her nephew’s hand gently. “I was hoping that maybe next week you could go see the dentist. It’s been over seven years now and your teeth have changed a lot since then.”

Peter shook his head quickly. “My teeth are fine! No tooth pain or anything like that, so I really don’t need to see a dentist.”

“You don’t know that, sweetie, I’d rather be safe than sorry. I’m going to call their office tomorrow morning.”

Peter bit his lip, looking down at his food as he tried to think of anything to stop May. His eyes widened as he realized he did have one card to play.“May wait, I can’t go to the dentist!”   


“And why not?” May questioned, raising an eyebrow at her nephew.

“M-my metabolism! It’s a lot faster than normal, so that means a regular d-dentist would have trouble giving me anesthetics and stuff like that. It’s the same reason why I can only see Dr. Cho now, not just anyone can treat me,” Peter rushed to explain.

May groaned. “I completely forgot about that. Still not fully used to all this weird science crap when it comes to you.”

“Y-yeah,” Peter laughed shakily. “So I guess no dentist then, right?”

May pursed her lips, staring at Peter for a long moment before giving him a wry smile. “No dentist for now then.”   
“Great!” Peter exclaimed, relief settling in his chest. “Thanks May, love you!” He leaned over to kiss his aunt on the cheek before dashing off to his room.

May sat their in silence, staring at the doorway where Peter had escaped through. She sighed as she closed her eyes. “Sorry kiddo, this is for your own good,” she whispered, getting up to grab her cell phone from the nearby countertop. 

She guiltily glanced at Peter’s closed door before sending her co parent-in-training a text message.  _ Tony, I need your help. Call me asap. _

* * *

 

The next morning Peter sat in his usual seat in his third period Lit class. All around him his classmates were in various stages of boredom as his teacher, Ms. Troiano, continued to drone on about the importance of milk in  _ Macbeth _ .

Peter knew he should be paying attention to whatever Ms. Troiano was attempting to teach, but all he could think about was the fact that today he was supposed to have a lab session with Mr. Stark later that day. Peter was dying to show him some new web formulas he had made the previous night, including one that could potentially last indefinitely. 

In the margins of his  _ Macbeth  _ book Peter continued to write the various complex chemical formulas, lost in his own little world of science and heroics. However, he was brought back to reality when the school’s loudspeaker system crackled to life inside the classroom.

“Peter Parker, please report to the main office immediately. I repeat, Peter Parker to the office,” the school’s loudspeaker announced. He blushed as his classmates “ohhhh-ed” at him. Ms. Troiano tried to shush them all as Peter stood up.

“Should I bring my backpack or…?” He asked awkwardly.

“Just take it with you, Peter,” Ms. Troiano said, waving a hall pass towards him. “And if you don’t come back, remember we have a test an Act II of  _ Macbeth  _ this Friday, so please study for that.”

Peter thanked her quietly as he turned to leave the classroom, but not before tripping over someone’s bag, earning him laughter from the rest of his class. Red faced, Peter practically ran out of the room.

As he walked towards the office Peter tried desperately to think of why he would be called down. He hadn’t been in trouble in school ever since May and Mr. Stark made a long list of rules that he strictly had to follow in order to continue being Spider-Man. One of the biggest rules was that his grades could no longer dip because of patrols or lab time, while another was that he had to be on time for school from now on. He also had to behave completely, which meant no more detentions.

Peter honestly couldn’t think of a good reason why he would be called down today, so he hoped that maybe he was about to receive good news or something like that. Maybe for once his Parker Luck™ would give him a break. 

He burst through the office doors but abruptly stopped in his tracks as he saw Mr. Stark sitting on a nearby chain, an air of calm boredom projected around him as he stared down at his phone. “Mr. Stark?”

Said man looked up and smiled at the teen, pocketing his phone as he went to stand up. “Finally, there you are! You know I hate to be kept waiting.”

“What are you doing here?” 

“Signing you out, of course,” Mr. Stark answered. He turned to the nearby secretary and asked, “Do I need to sign anything else or can I take him now?”   


“You’re free to go,” Ms. Hernandez cheerfully replied. “Bye Mr. Stark, bye Peter!”   


“Um, bye Ms. Hernandez,” Peter mumbled as he followed Mr. Stark out of the building. “Is everything ok? Is May ok?”

“Geez, you’re way too young to be a pessimist,” Mr. Stark snarked. “But yes, everything is fine, May is fine, and before you ask, yes she knows I’m signing you out today.”

“Wait, do we have a mission!” Peter blurted out excitedly as he entered his mentor’s car. “Cuz I have my suit in my backpack, so I’m ready to-”

Mr. Stark snorted, leaning over to ruffle the teen’s hair. “Down kid. No mission, but I do need your help with something important at the compound.”

“Oh.” Peter tilted his head to the side like a puppy as he stared at his mentor. For some reason there was something…  _ off  _ about the older man. It was as if he was trying harder than usual to be aloof and careless. On top of that, Mr. Stark almost never signed him out of school without a prior warning. Both him and May had double downed on Peter’s academic career, which meant always attending classes, practises, and completing his homework on time. But as Mr. Stark started the car Peter decided that he was over thinking things. Maybe his mentor really was just busy and did need Peter’s help.  

“Well, that’s still cool! Thank you for breaking me out of school then, Mr. Stark.”

Tony shook his head, a fond smile on his face. Peter could have sworn he saw a hint of something else (guilt?) in his mentor’s eyes, but he shrugged it off as Mr. Stark replied, “No problem, kiddo.”

* * *

 

The drive to the compound was pretty uneventful. Tony stopped at a Wendy’s drive thru so Peter could eat some lunch in the car, and by the time they finally reached the compound Peter was just finishing his most recent patrol tale.

“-so then DareDevil showed up! We decided to team up and fought all around the harbour and it was so awesome, Mr. Stark. We took down the whole gang, and managed to rescue all the girls and dogs. We even grabbed pizza afterwards, which was probably the best part of my whole month.”

Mr. Stark chuckled as he turned onto the compound’s private driveway. “Only you would think grabbing pizza with a crazy vigilante would be great.”

“Hey, Double D isn’t crazy,” Peter protested, munching on the last of his fries. “He’s just… really high strung, and really into justice. And really Catholic.”

“The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is  _ Catholic _ ?” 

“Whoops, I thought you knew, please don’t mention to him that I told you that.”

This time Mr. Stark gave a full on laugh as he parked the car in front of the compound. “C’mon kiddie.”

“So what exactly did you need help with?”

“Well,” Mr. Stark started, “It’s a little complicated. It’s better just to show you. C’mon, it’s in the medical wing.”

Peter dutifully followed the billionaire, all the while still chatting his ear off about his awesome pizza party with DareDevil. He abruptly stopped, however, when he entered the waiting room area of the medical unit and saw May sitting on one of the couches.

“Aunt May?”

“Hey honey,” May greeted, getting up to give her nephew a quick hug.

“What are you doing here, I thought you had work?”

“About that,” May said, glancing over at Tony nervously. Before she could continue Peter frantically interrupted.

“Are you ok? Oh My Gosh, are you hurt or something? Is that why Mr. Stark picked me up early?”   


“Calm down, Pete,” May soothed. “I’m fine, everything is ok. Tony and I just needed to talk to you about something.”   
Peter turned his anxious stare to Mr. Stark, who gestured for the teen to sit on the nearby couch. “Calm down, kid. Everything’s fine, just thought it would be better to do this today.”

Glancing uncertainly between the two adults, Peter sat down next to May and began to shake his right leg anxiously. “So what do you need to talk to me about?”

“Remember our discussion yesterday,” May began to say. However, before she could continue Peter shot up from the couch, face pale and hands shaking.

“I thought we said no dentist!”

“Honey you need to see one,” May gently persisted. “I know you hate the dentist, but I’d rather make sure your teeth and mouth are completely healthy.”

“She’s right, kiddo,” Mr. Stark butted in. “Trust me, everyone hates to see the dentist, Hell even I hate going. But it’s for your own good.”   
Peter shook his head violently. “My teeth are fine, I’m fine, I don’t need a dentist! Plus you said I’m not allowed to see any medical people outside of Dr. Cho and her team!”

“Key word there being team,” Mr. Stark stressed. “Luckily she has someone who’s a DMD that’s trained with super humans. She’s also actually my own personal dentist, really sweet woman, you’ll love her.”   


“No, I won’t!” Peter yelled. Both May and Mr. Stark stared at the teen in shock. Peter rarely raised his voice, in fact most of the time when he did it was out of excitement rather than anger. But both adults could see the panic etched into the boy’s face as he clenched his hands tightly.

“C’mon kiddie,” Mr. Stark gently coaxed, slowly approaching his protege like one would approach a startled puppy. “It won’t be that bad, both May and I will be right in the room with you the whole time.”   


“Wait, you want me to see the her right now?” Peter croaked, eyes widening as he started to back away from them and towards the exit.

“We thought it would be best just to get it over with,” May answered. “If we gave you a heads up we knew you would find a way to try to get out of it.”

“Yeah, cuz I  _ don’t _ need to see the dentist!” 

“Sorry kid, you’re out voted two to one,” Mr. Stark replied. “We wouldn’t make you do this if it wasn’t for your own good.”

Peter bit his lip harshly as his back finally met the wall closest to the door. He squeezed his eyes shut as he tried not to just break down then and there. Blinking his eyes open he quietly asked, “Can I at least use the bathroom?”

“Go right ahead, hun,” May nodded, face worried but still trying to remain gentle. “I’ll go tell the doctor you’re almost ready.”   
Suppressing a shudder Peter practically ran to the bathroom. It was a single bathroom that was located down the hall from the waiting room area, with only one stall and sink. 

He quickly locked the door behind him and leaned against the wooden door.

“Oh god,” He whispered, sliding down the door until his forehead met his folded knees. “Not again, I can’t do this.” 

On some level Peter knew he should be embarrassed by how he was acting. He knew that Tony and May were right and that he should see the dentist. But as Peter thought about sitting on that dental chair he felt his chest begin to constrict and his hands start to shake uncontrollably. 

“Nope, I can’t do this.” Getting up from the floor Peter looked around the room. In a corner of the room, near the ceiling, was a small window. Most people wouldn’t fit through it, but since Peter was on the skinny side he figured he could probably escape though there.

Peter went towards it, climbing up the wall with his powers and began to try to unlock it. It did not budge, and Peter felt himself begin to panic even more

He heard someone knock on the door and he froze. 

“Peter, are you ok?” It was Mr. Stark. Peter wanted to say no, that he didn’t want to do this today, or ever actually. He just wanted to be somewhere else. But his tongue refused to move and his breathing grew harsher.

“Pete can you please answer me? I’m getting really worried out here, kiddo.”

To Peter’s horror he choked out a sob, which caused Mr. Stark to start pulling on the door handle harsher. “Kiddo, if you don’t answer me I’m gonna have to come in there.”

Even though he knew Mr. Stark could not see him Peter shook his head frantically. In his panic he let his superhuman strength come out, forcing the whole window and some of the wall to break off and fall outside, creating a gaping hole in the side of the building.

The bathroom he was in was located on the third floor, and while he did not have his webshooters on him, he did still have his powers. Taking a deep breath, he clambered out the hole and jumped, safely rolling into a forwards flip as he landed. He ran towards the forested area of the compound, not looking back once.

* * *

 

Peter wasn’t sure how long he ran, all he knew was that he  _ had to  _ get away. He finally stopped running when he reached a small creek. Sitting near the edge of it he gasped and tried to breath normally, falling to the forest floor on all fours. However, the more he tried, the more his breath grew shorter. The edges of his vision blurred so he screwed his eyes shut as tears fell down his cheeks. 

Peter felt as if his whole body were numb, as if a thousand bees had stung him repeatedly. He felt weightless, as if he would just float away with any breeze.  He probably would have floated away, too, if a strong hand hadn’t gripped his shoulder tightly, grounding him.

Someone was shouting Peter’s name near his ear but he couldn’t tell who it was. It was as if he were underwater. All he knew was that his chest hurt, his hands were squeezed so tightly that his palms bled, and that he  _ didn’t  _ want to float away. He felt the unknown voice grab his left hand and attempt to pry his fist apart. Whoever held his hand was no match for his strength, and quickly gave up. Instead, the voice placed the fist on something that moved up and down. It took a moment for Peter to realize it was a chest that was exaggerating it’s normal breathing cycle.

For whatever reason, feeling someone breathing normally comforted Peter, and he tried to copy the voice’s breaths. After a few moments he could hear the voice clearer.

“That’s it, kiddie, just follow my breathes, you’re alright, you’re safe.”

With sudden clarity he realized the voice was Mr. Stark.

“Shh, it’s ok, you’re safe, just breathe. Feel my chest rise and fall, c’mon Pete you can do it.”

There wasn’t a lot of people that Peter trusted in his life, in fact he could count the amount of people on one hand. But Mr. Stark was definitely on that list, so if Mr. Stark said that he was safe then he knew he was safe. His breathes slowly equalized, and he managed to unclench his fists.

“That’s it Peter, you’re doing great. Can you open your eyes for me.”

For a moment Peter didn’t even remember that he had squeezed his eyes shut. He forced his eyelids to open and was met with the concerned (but trying to hide it, of course) face of Mr. Stark. The two were kneeling by the creek, both of Mr. Stark’s hands gripping Peter’s arms tightly.

When Mr. Stark saw that Peter had opened his eyes fully he tried to give the boy a smile but it came out more like a grimace. “You scared the shit out of me, kiddo.”   


“I’m so sorry,” Peter whispered, and he felt more tears build up in his eyes. Oh God he was so stupid, why couldn’t he be normal? Why was he freaking out so badly about seeing a dentist? He had almost died countless times and he barely batted an eye anymore, yet he couldn’t emotionally handle the dentist and oh God, he was a disappointment, May would hate him for this, Tony would be disgusted by how weak he was and take away his suit and-

“Peter! Shhh it’s ok, calm down kid, breathe,” Tony practically begged. Peter hadn’t even noticed that his breathing had begun to pick up and he forced himself to calm down. When his breathing returned to some semblance of normal Mr. Stark pulled towards him towards him. He wrapped one hand around the teen’s back as his other began to gently rub the back of Peter’s head.

“It’s ok Peter, I’ve got you, you’re safe.”   


“I’m so sorry, Mr. Stark,” Peter apologize, voice thick as he hid his face in Tony’s shoulders.

“Don’t you dare apologize,” Mr. Stark commanded him. “You have nothing to apologize for, Peter.”   


“Yes I do!” Peter cried out, leaning backwards so he could stare into Mr. Stark’s eyes.

Tony’s lips thinned as he watched the teen shake. “You really don’t, but fine, let’s hear why exactly you need to apologize.”   


Peter bit his lip as he turned his face away in shame. “Because I’m a coward.” He stared out across the creek where he could see a rabbit poking its head out of a burrow. 

“Because I’m so stupid for freaking out. Because I’m a disappointment and a freak and not normal.” Peter turned to stare fiercely at his mentor, who was watching his rant silently. “Because I broke the window and the wall, because I ran away, because now you are  _ forced  _ to have to deal with my breakdown. All of that is the reason why!” By the end of his tirade Peter was panting as fresh tears ran down his face.

Mr. Stark sighed loudly, taking one hand off of Peter’s arms to rub a hand down his face. Peter tried to look away in shame, but Mr. Stark firmly but gently grip his chin so that he had to look at the man.

“Alright shortstack, listen up because I’m about to completely ruin your self deprecation party. Let’s go down the list. First off, Peter Parker is the bravest person I have ever met in my whole life, and I’ve been in a superhero team for years. You are also  _ so  _ incredibly smart, smarter than I was at your age and a Hell of a lot more mature.

“Peter, you are the furthest thing from a disappointment, I am so proud of you, and I know that so is your aunt. We could never be disappointed in you, and I am so sorry if I haven’t told you more often how proud I am of you. And don’t even worry about the wall, I was meaning on doing some redecoration so you just gave me an excuse to start on it sooner!

“But Peter, trust me when I say I am never forced to help you when you’re breaking down, I  _ want  _ to help you. If you need a shoulder to cry on I want to be there, or if you need to just rant at someone, hey? I want to be there for that. Peter, you’re my kid now and I want to help you through anything, no matter what. So please,  _ please _ , never apologize for needing me because I will  _ always _ be there for you, and not because I’m forced to but because I want to to be there.”

Throughout Tony’s heartfelt speech Peter could feel body relax and his tears dry as he watched his father figure speak. By the end of it he was even grinning slightly. Tony returned the boy’s smile and pulled the kid in for another hug.

“Thank you Mr. Stark,” Peter said, returning the hug. He felt the older man shake his head.

“You don’t have to thank me, kiddie.”

The two remained hugging for a long moment, the sounds of the creek’s water running down hill the only noise around him. Peter was the first one to break the hug.

“I guess we should head back, huh?” He brought up a sleeved arm to wipe away some of the dirt and dried tears from his face.

“I guess so.” Mr. Stark groaned exaggeratedly as he got up. He offered his protege a hand up. “Are you sure you’re ok? Because we can move this to another day if you can’t deal with it quite yet.”

Peter bit his lip and shook his head. “No, I can’t let me fear rule me. Plus you and May’ll be there.”   
“Damn straight,” Tony promised, wrapping an arm around his surrogate son’s shoulders as the two began to walk back to the compound. 

The walk back was silent, and by the time the compound came into view Tony couldn’t help but inquire something.

“Kid, you don’t have to answer this,” He began, “But why do you have such a bad fear of the dentist.”

Peter kicked a nearby rock as he thought of a response. Finally, he answered, “When I was maybe 4 or 5 my mom took me to the dentist. I dunno, I think something was wrong with my front tooth. Anyways, my parents had picked a pretty shady dentist. Like office-above-a-sushi-place kind of shady. When the dentist finally saw me he just reeked of smoke. I guess my mom either didn’t notice or didn’t care. 

“It started off fine, he took the X-Rays and checked around. Finally he said that by bottom baby tooth needed to come out because the adult tooth was already growing in. He promised it wouldn’t hurt since the tooth was already loose, that it would just an easy pull, and my mom said I would get a prize if I was a big boy.

“So I just sat there, holding my mom’s hand while the dentist grabbed the pliers. I was so scared, Mr. Stark, but I wanted to be brave. And then I just felt this horrible pain in my mouth and blood started just pouring out. Turns out the dentist had pulled out the wrong tooth and basically ripped a whole tooth out.

“I was crying so hard, and my mom started yelling at the dentist while he started yelling at me, telling me it was my fault for some reason. My mom tried to grab my hand to leave, but the dentist pushd my mom down and called for some nurses to come it. One of the nurses held my mom back while the other held me down on the chair. One other nurse came to force my mouth open, and the dentist grabbed the pliers to pull out the right tooth. Well, he actually pulled out a wrong tooth  _ again _ , and by that point I was almost passing out from pain and fear. 

“It took him another try to get the right tooth. I was crying so hard and my mom was carrying me out while calling my dad and it was  _ horrible _ .”   
Peter stopped walking as he remembered that day. He honestly still considered it one of the worst days of his life. He couldn’t eat right for weeks after that, and he had so many nightmares, to the point that he needed to sleep with his aunt and uncle for months.

“Jesus, Peter,” Mr. Stark breathed, face white as he processed the story. “Please tell me that dentist went to prison or something.”

Peter gave him a sad smile as he began walking again to the compound’s main doors. “Not exactly. My mom wanted to press charges, but my dad convinced her not to. They were supposed to go to some genetics conference in Vienna the next day, and my dad didn’t want to postpone the trip. They dropped me off at May and Ben’s the very next morning, and by that night I found out they were dead. So pressing charges against that dentist wasn’t exactly on Ben and May’s mind while my whole world basically imploded.”   


By that point the two had reached the steps of the compound. Mr. Stark grabbed Peter’s arm to stop him before he could climb the steps. “I am so sorry that happened to you. That dentist deserves to rot in prison. But I swear to you, May and I will be in the room with you the whole time right now, we’ll make sure nothing bad happens to you. Dr. Song is one of the best dentists in the world, plus she used to actually specialize as a pediatric dentist before she came to work with Cho. You’re in the best hands possible, kiddo, I made sure of that.”   


Peter smiled at Mr. Stark and wrapped his arms around his mentor. “I know, I trust you Tony.”

* * *

 

The examination went off without a hitch. Peter quickly realized that Dr. Song was one of the kindest, gentlest women on the face of the planet. The whole time she offered Peter quiet praises and stopped whenever he needed to breath.

May and Mr. Stark sat by his side during every moment of the examination. They took turns holding his hand and softly playing with his hair in order to soothe him. All in all the examination only took 15 minutes. Luckily Peter hadn’t had any cavities, so all Dr. Song needed to do was give him a dental cleaning. It went by quick, and before he knew it the whole thing was done.

“That’s really it?” Peter asked, amazed despite himself.

“That’s really it,” Dr. Song beamed. “Just remember to keep flossing and brushing your teeth and you’ll keep those pearly whites sparkling.”   


“Thank you so much,” Peter said, deep gratitude making his voice thick.

“It was no problem, hun,” Dr. Song winked. “Have a wonderful day. Stark, if you need me, I’ll be with Helen.” And with that Dr. Song left the room. Peter turned to look over at the other two adults in the room.

“Thanks for sticking by my side, guys.”

“Aw honey, you don’t need to thank us,” May assured him while Tony just moaned in mock annoyance. 

“Kid, for the millionth time, we don’t need thanks, we’ll always be here for you.”

“Still, thanks,  it means a lot.” May gave him a loving smile while Tony bent over to ruffle his hair. “And hey! With you guys here, I can’t say I have a bad filling about this anymore!”

Both May and Peter snickered while Tony gave an over exaggerated groan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so explanation time:
> 
> I've been wanting to upload for weeks, but anxiety has been kicking my ass for these past two months. My doctor changed my anxiety medication recently, and it has had some pretty adverse affects. For weeks it's taken all of my energy to even get out of bed in the morning and try to be a normal, functional human being. 
> 
> Good news, though, is that I think my doctor and I have finally found the right medication/dosage to treat my anxiety without all the bad affects. I spent this whole weekend planning out some future stories, chapters, and prompts so I will hopefully be posting all of that soon, both here and on my Tumblr (same username, and I swear I'm gonna start posting more often again!)
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has stuck around, I'll reply to everyone's comments from the last chapter in the morning. I'm so grateful that people actually seem to be enjoying my work, it's truly a wonderful feeling.
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, please let me know if there are any mistakes/spelling errors/grammatical issues, I only proofread this once since I wanted to post it so badly. Thanks again for bearing with me, I love you all to pieces <3 And I promise, the next chapter won't take as long to post!


	6. +1: Defense Squad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony takes Peter on a tour of MIT. It doesn't exactly go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhh last chapter guys!!!!! Please enjoy, this might be the longest chapter I've ever written so far. Also, thank you all for your kind comments last chapter, I still have to reply to everyone but they all gave me the motivation to write this <3

“Just to make sure,” Tony heard Peter begin as the two walked out of the Koch Biology Building together, “You really don’t have anything more important to do today, right? Cuz Ms. Potts is gonna kill you if you’re missing another meeting this week  _ again _ .”

“I knew letting you shadow Pepper for a day would be a bad idea,” Tony muttered. “But for the record, no I do not have any meetings scheduled for today. And anyways, what could possibly be  more important than taking my kiddo on a personal tour of his future university!”

Tony saw the kid flush and he couldn’t help but broaden his grin and wrap an arm around the boy’s shoulders. Geez, this kid could be too cute without even trying sometimes. 

“You know I can’t even apply here for at least another year, right?” Peter rolled his eyes. “Who knows, I could always change my mind and choose, oh I don’t know, CalTech as my first pick instead.”

“Do that and you’re disowned,” Tony dismissed him, taking off his rose gold sunglasses to send the kid a glare. All Peter did was smirk. “What do you want to check out next?”

Peter quickly took out a worn MIT campus map from his back pocket to look at it. He cocked his head to the side before looking up, eyes narrowing towards the building across the courtyard. “Let’s check out that cool looking building over there, I think it’s called the Ray and Maria Stata Center.”

“You know I’ve never been inside there,” Tony commented as the duo made their way across North Court.

“You didn’t have any classes in there?” Peter asked as he took some pictures of the building’s funky exterior with his phone.

“This building didn’t exist when I attended here. Come to think of it, this center is where Building 20 used to be. That was where one of the first ever hackerspaces was founded here on campus, so I used to spend a lot of time with Rhodey in the space.”

“Cool!”

“It’s actually really weird to see Building 20 gone,” Tony admitted, taking in the main lobby area as they entered the building. “You wouldn’t believe half the shi- I mean crap that Rhodey and I used to get up to after club meetings in Building 20.”

“If I remember correctly, Antonio, you were the one always causing trouble while poor James was the one attempting to fix your messes,” a familiar but older voice drawled from behind them. 

Tony turned quickly on his heels when he heard the female voice, already guessing who it was; not many dared to call him Antonio anymore. He was proven correct when his widened eyes were met with the elderly form of a well loved figure from his past. With quick steps towards the woman he exclaimed, “Professor Lebrenew! Is that really you?”

“In the flesh, dear Antonio,” Dr. Lebrenew beamed as she shook hands with Tony. “A pleasure to see you happy and well.”

“Same to you, ma’am,” Mr. Stark replied fondly. For a brief moment it felt as if he were 15 again, still hopeful and naive and eager to learn from the genius in front of him.

The moment ended when Peter butted in excitedly. “Wait, Dr. Lebrenew? As in the Doctor Sandra Lebrenew, the woman who single handedly managed to revamp the whole robotics field while also helping to create the first AI? That Dr. Lebrenew?!”

“The one and only,” Dr. Lebrenew confirmed, eyes twinkling as she took in the youth behind Tony. 

“Oh my gosh, wow! This is- wow,” Peter stuttered as he stared at the doctor. Tony’s grin grew as he watched his kid continue to flounder. “I can’t believe this! My school has a picture of you and everything hanging on the wall of fame! I’m pretty sure my robotics teacher thinks you’re like Jesus or something, he has a shrine of you in our class!”

Now Dr. Lebrenew laughed as she watched Peter continue to patter on in a combination of hero worship and general excitement. “I must say, it’s not often that I receive such praise and recognition from someone so young. Since you know who I am, it would only be fair for me to know your name, hm?”

“Uh, o-of course,” Peter stammered. “Uh…” Peter’s mouth moved but no sound would come out. Though Tony felt amused seeing Peter’s natural awkward enthusiasm come out, he decided to have some pity on the kid. 

“This is Peter Parker,” He introduced as he clapped the teen on the shoulders. “He’s my personal intern who wanted a tour of MIT.”

“Intern?” Dr. Lebrenew echoed, raising a fine grey eyebrow at Tony. “My, how times change, I remember when you were still my student and you swore up and down that you would never have any interns or assistants when you were in charge of Stark Industries.”

Tony shrugged. “What can I say? This kid right here is probably a lot smarter than I was at his age, and a lot more respectful, so the least I could do was offer him an internship at my labs.”

“High praise coming from a man like Antonio,” Dr. Lebrenew commented as she smiled softly at Peter. “Considering MIT as your future university of choice, young man?”

“Yes ma’am,” Peter answered feverently. “I’ve been wanting to go to MIT since I started kindergarten.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll get in with no problem seeing that you’re such an intelligent and respectful young man. It also helps that you have a personal connection to Antonio,” Dr. Lebrenew shot a smirk at Tony.

“Trust me, professor,” Tony shook his head, “Pete won’t need any of my help to get in, MIT will practically be breaking down his front door to give him an invitation. Give him a couple of years and he’ll be doing much greater things than I could have ever done at his age.”

“Mr. Stark,” Peter hissed, cheeks red as he glared embarrassedly up at Tony.

“What? It’s true and you know it,” Tony replied, ruffling the teen’s already unruly hair, earning an annoyed groan from Peter.

“You really have changed, Antonio,” Dr. Lebrenew chuckled, obviously delighted. “We do need to catch up with one another, are you free at all any time today? Possibly after giving your intern a tour?”

“Sorry, doc, the kid and I need to start heading back to New York City by at least 4, he has school in the morning,” Tony apologetically frowned. 

“Drat,” Dr. Lebrenew sighed. “Oh well, there is always next time I suppose.”

“Wait,” Peter protested. “Mr. Stark, why don’t you just go get some coffee with Dr. Lebrenew right now?”

“And what about our tour?” Tony asked, turning to the kid.

“Well, getting some coffee won’t take long, an hour tops, right? It’s a quarter to 11, you could catch up with your professor for like an hour while I could just hang around and see some of the sites and then we could meet up somewhere at 12.”

Tony scrunched up his eyebrows before he shook his head. “Your Aunt would literally kill me if I left you on your own in a new place.”

“Isn’t MIT one of the safest campuses around?” Peter asked, turning towards Dr. Lebrenew.

“It is,” the professor confirmed. “Especially during summer semester. There’s less students and campus security is everywhere. However, I have an even better idea. How would you like to see my personal labs up close and work with some of the very best graduate students that MIT has to offer while Antonio and I catch up?”

Peter’s jaw dropped, staring at Dr. Lebrenew with shock. “Ar-Are you serious? Me? Labs? Wait what!”

“Jesus kid,” Tony groaned out good naturedly. 

The kid turned to stare at Tony, face pale and eyes wide. For a moment Tony worried the kid was about to keel over in shock before Peter’s face broke into a wide smile that could probably light up the whole New York City skyline. “Mr. Stark! Oh my gosh did she just offer to let me see her labs?! This is the best day of my whole entire life!”

Tony couldn’t help but frown. “Uh kid, what about the day you met me.”   


Peter waved a dismissive hand as he smirked at Tony. “Eh, not even in my top five, sorry.”

“You little-” Tony mock growled, pulling the kid in to tossel his hair. 

“Mr. Stark,” Peter whined, “You’re embarrassing me!”

“Then you shouldn’t have sassed me,” Tony counted, but did let the kid go.

The whole time Dr. Lebrenew stared at the pair with an amused expression on her face. “So gentlemen, is that a good enough plan for the two of you.”

“Yes!” Peter practically screeched. Tony just rolled his eyes at his kid’s antics but did offer his former professor a nod of assent. 

“Perfect, then let us all take a trip up to my labs. Please follow me.”

 

* * *

 

Dr. Lebrenew’s labs were in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory wing of the Stata. While they could not rival Tony’s own personal labs, he did have to admit that for a university, these labs were a beautiful scientific and technological landscape for students and professors alike. Tony himself would have been giddy to enter this space when he was a student at MIT.

“Awesome,” Peter gasped, eyes roaming the lab.

One whole side of the lab was made up of floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing natural sunlight to filter in, while the rest of the walls were covered in shelving and scientific tools. The middle held various lab benches, hoods, and laptops. Around one particular laptop were a group of a people, most of whom were most likely in their mid to late 20’s. They all turned to face the incoming trio, and some gasped and began to mumble when they saw who had entered the lab.

“Students,” Dr. Lebrenew called out, clapping her hands to gather their attention to her. “I wanted to introduce all of you to two guests who I have invited today. As you might have already guessed, this is Dr. Anthony Stark and right behind him is his personal intern, Peter Parker. Antonio, Mr. Parker, these are some of my personal graduate students.”

“Hey there,” Tony nonchalantly waved at the awed group of students while Peter stuttered out a greeting. 

“Dr. Stark and I will be heading out to discuss some things, however Mr. Parker will be staying and working with you all for the next hour or so. From what Dr. Stark has told me, he has already worked within Stark Industry Labs on personal and professional projects, so he will be able to keep up with you all. Please make him feel welcomed, and Annette,” Dr. Lebrenew turned towards a young woman with dark skin and curly hair, “Since you are team leader today, please go over the basics of the current project with Mr. Parker.” Once Annette nodded Dr. Lebrenew smiled at her students. “Alright then, carry on, I will be back within an hour.” With that she turned to head back out the door.

“Are you sure you’ll be fine here?” Tony couldn’t help but ask, running a critical eye over the kid.

Peter was still grinning maniacally and bobbed his head quickly. “Oh my gosh yes, Ned won’t believe this when I tell him!”

“Come along Antonio,” Dr. Lebrenew beckoned from the doorway. “Your intern will be fine, my students will treat him like a member of their group, and I for one am dying to regale you with tales of some of my more idiotic freshmen.”

“If you need anything, call me,” Tony said, quickly ruffling Peter’s hair before the teen could protest.  “Be good! And have fun.”

 

* * *

 

 

“-and so, instead of handing in his group’s project, the moron hands in 2 hours worth of pornography! And not even live action pornography, no it was cartoon pornography!” Dr. Lebrenew chortled gracefully while Tony almost dropped his coffee because of how hard he was laughing.

“I would have died of embarrassment,” Tony said as his chuckles died off. “Did you let him re-submit the correct project?”

“Eventually,” Dr. Lebrenew answered, a devious smirk on her face. “After he came to my office blubbering and begging to let him hand in his group’s project. I told him I would allow it, if he cleaned my labs up every Friday for the rest of the semester.”

“You’re going soft, doc,” Tony laughed. “If I would have done that back when I was still a student, you probably would have made me clean your labs until the day I graduated.”

Dr. Lebrenew shrugged. “Most likely, but with all the trouble you caused in your time here, you would have deserved it.” She continued to stir her coffee gently as she glanced out the window.

The two were about a 5 minute drive from the campus, having decided to just go to a local Starbucks. Luckily the shop was mostly empty, which meant that no one had even noticed that Tony Stark was sitting with a professor, enjoying coffee as the two traded stories.

The pair lapsed into a comfortable silence for a moment, before Dr. Lebrenew glanced back at her former student over her pair of glasses. “Speaking of getting soft, what finally made you cave in and get in intern? And such an exceptionally young intern at that.”

Tony tried to shrug off the question. “Saw him at a local science fair, and I dunno, he just had a different quality than everyone else in the room. Unfortunately he comes from a low income background, so I thought it would be fair to at least give him a shot in the big leagues. Plus he’s slowly gotten over his adorable little hero worship with me, so he’s a lot sassier nowadays.”

Dr. Lebrenew cocked her head to the side and narrowed her dark brown eyes at Tony. Once again Tony felt like a young student again, and he resisted the urge to squirm under the doctor’s scrutiny. “That boy is much more than just an intern to you, isn’t he, Tonio?”

Tony blinked at her. “What, you think he’s my son or something? Because let me tell you, everyone always gets that idea and-”

“No, no,” Dr. Lebrenew interrupted him. “That boy is not your son, the world would have known that from the start. But I would take a guess and say that while he may not be your biological son, he might as well be, hm?”

Tony shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, doc. I’m not good with kids, and even if I were, I would be a terrible father. I’m pretty sure I would make the worst father figure in the history of fatherhood.”

Dr. Lebrenew sighed, reaching forward to clasp Tony’s right hand. “Oh Antonio, although I may tease you about all the trouble you caused when you were young, that was never your biggest fault. No, your biggest fault was always your lack of self confidence.”

“Uh doc, have you met me? Some people would argue that I’m  _ too  _ confident,” Tony chuckled mirthlessly. 

“That’s just the persona you’re trying to portray,” Dr. Lebrenew said, waving a dismissive hand in the air. “And while you may have gotten better at only showing the world what you want them to see, I’ve known you for far too long to be fooled by your tactics.” 

She took a long sip of her coffee while Tony attempted to think of a way to steer this conversation away from such personal details. Before he could change the subject, however, Dr. Lebrenew continued speaking. “I don’t blame you for your need to hide behind masks. In fact, most people in your position probably would have coped worse than how you did.”

Tony couldn’t help but scoff at that. “Honestly I’m probably the poster kid of the worst coping mechanisms possible. I mean, how many times was I charged with either drug possession or underage drinking back in my playboy years?”

“And I firmly blame your father for that.” 

“I thought you and dad were good friends?” Tony asked, one eyebrow raised.

“Oh we were, I would even dare say Howard was one of my closest friends. But even I have to admit that Howard had many faults, paramount being his treatment of you.” Dr. Lebrenew sighed deeply as she stared out the window. “I’m sure you could guess that Howard wasn’t exactly jumping for joy when he found out Maria was pregnant. In fact, I don’t think Howard ever really wanted children, his main goal in life was always to find out what had happened to Steve Rogers.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Tony bitterly muttered. All his childhood was spent competing with a missing man for his own father’s affection. It should have been no surprise that he would have grown up to also become an asshole.

Dr. Lebrenew briefly glanced back at Tony before returning to gaze out of the window. “I don’t blame you for hating him, Antonio. Howard was never fit to become a father, he had gone through so much during the war, and losing Steve was hard on him. Believe me, I am not trying to justify him, but just to provide some clarity on why he was the way he was.”

Tony turned his eyes to see what the doctor was staring at. Across the street from where they were sitting sat a little boy with an older man that was most likely his father. The boy was only around five or six years old, and was having trouble eating his snowcone while his father attempted to help him. 

A year ago such a scene would have stirred some sort of bitter emotion within Tony, but now all he could feel was a sense fondness. The scene reminded him of the time that he took Peter to that Mets game a couple of weeks ago, where he and Peter had eaten ice cream in the stands until Peter was practically bouncing in his seat because of the sugar rush. That memory brought a smile to Tony’s face, and he turned back to face Dr. Lebrenew.

“I don’t hate him,” Tony admitted softly. “I did when I was younger, but I don’t hate my father anymore. Howard was never meant to be a good dad, and even though I wish we could have resolved our issues before his… death, I don’t want to be stuck in his shadow anymore by hating him.”

Dr. Lebrenew stared at Tony in slight surprise before her face morphed into understanding. “I’m glad that having a child of your own has helped you heal over your father’s shortcomings.”

“Not my kid, doc,” Tony rolled his eyes.

“I would beg to differ, that boy looks at you as if you hung all the stars in the galaxies.”

“He does not,” Tony protested. “I try my best with him, but I’m pretty sure that most of the time I fail spectacularly. He probably respects me and all that fun jazz, but I’m the last person that kid would want as a father figure.”

Dr. Lebrenew raised an eyebrow. “Do you listen to him when he has any problems?”   


“I mean duh, of course.”

“And do you try to help him fix his problems?”

“Well yeah.”   


“Would you do everything in your power to make him as happy as he could be?”

“Without hesitation.”   


“Oh Tony,” Dr. Lebrenew grasped his hand again. “You don’t realize it, but you already love that boy like your own.”

Tony blinked at her and realized that she was right. In a way he had always known that he cared about Peter greatly, but he never wanted to admit it himself that he truly loved the kid like his own son. 

Tony had never had the best track record on loving people. First were his parents, who more often than not were absent in his life. There were the various flings of his youth and adulthood, but those never lasted very long. There had been Edwin Jarvis, but he too was gone now. Obadiah Stane had ended up betraying him, leaving another hole in his jaded heart. And even the Avengers had left him, bitter and depressed.

But even through all the betrayals, deaths, and abandonments he could finally admit to himself that he did have people that he loved, and who loved him back. There was Rhodey, whose friendship with him spanned decades. Happy had just been an employee, but after everything they had been through the two had become good friends. There was also Pepper, most likely the love of his life, who had stuck with him even through the most dangerous moments of his life.

And of course, there was Peter now. Peter, whose eyes lit up whenever he so much as saw the older man. Peter, who would jabber on about his latest patrol to Tony as the two ate pizza while watching a movie. Peter, who had finally learned to come to him with problems to fix and for advice on even the most mundane of things. Peter, who was so good and innocent and who would end up better than all of the Avengers combined one day.

In a world as dark as they lived in, Peter Parker was one of the last good and innocent things that Tony had left in his life, and he would rather die than let something happen to his kid. But more so than that, Tony realized that he wanted to live for the kid, to see him grow up and become a better man than what Tony ever could have been.  _ So that’s what loving someone unconditionally feels like _ .

Throughout his whole mini revelation Dr. Lebrenew sat back and watched Tony with fond amusement. “You understand now?”

“Yeah, I think I do,” Tony said, glancing back at the doctor with a newfound determination. 

“And what are you going to do now with this new information?”

“Well that’s easy,” Tony answered, getting up to get ready to go. “I have to make sure that my kid realizes that I love him.”

Dr. Lebrenew just smiled softly as she too got up.

 

* * *

 

“I really can’t thank you enough, doc,” Tony said as the two walked through the lobby of Stata.

“You really don’t have to,” Dr. Lebrenew chided gently. “I can tell that this boy has greatly improved your mood lately, especially after the mess the Accords created for you. I’m glad to see you happy once again.”

“Trust me, I’m happy about that too,” Tony chuckled as they almost reached Dr. Lebrenew’s lab doors. “I just can’t believe it’s taken me this long to admit how much I care about the kid. I mean, it’s like- What the Hell?!” Tony cut himself off harshly as the lab doors opened and he saw what was going on inside. 

On one side one of the students had bloody knuckles and was attempting to get free from the hold of two other students. Directly across from him was Peter, and Tony noticed with building rage that he was holding up a shaking hand to his bloody nose. A female student was hastily trying to check his nose while another student was rubbing soothing circles onto his back. Hearing Tony’s exclamation everyone in the room turned towards the door and froze.

“What in God’s name is going on?” Dr. Lebrenew yelled, a thunderous expression on her face. 

Immediately all the students began yelling at once, but Tony did not even attempt to listen for an explanation. Instead he quickly strided over to Peter, who was staring at Tony with wide eyes.

Tony gently grabbed the teen’s chin, trying to take closer look at his bleeding nose. Peter winced but quietly said, “I’m fine.”

“Like Hell you are!” Tony growled. Turning around to stare down at the student with bloody knuckles he all but snarled, “What the Hell did you do to my kid?!”

“Mr. Stark,” Peter hissed as he attempted to stem the blood flowing from his nose. “Just forget about it, I’m fine.”

Tony whirled around again to face Peter. “What. Happened.”

Peter did not answer, instead opting to stare down at his shoes. Tony looked up and across to Dr. Lebrenew, who was still attempting to quiet her students. Seeing his face, she called out, “Antonio, towards your right there is a set of doors which leads to my office. Attend to your intern in there while I try to find out what happened.”

Tony gave her a grateful nod as he wrapped an arm around Peter’s shoulders. “C’mon, kiddo, let’s check your nose.”

Peter was quiet the whole way to the office, and once inside he sat down on a nearby couch. Tony grabbed tissues from the desk and knelt in front of Peter, gently cleaning up some of the blood from the boy’s chin and lips. The whole time Peter refused to look at his mentor in the eye, instead staring silently towards his left side.

“Well, it doesn’t look broken,” Tony said softly. Peter just hummed disinterestedly.

Tony sighed deeply. “Peter, can you please look at me.” Peter hesitantly moved his eyes to stare into Tony’s eyes. “Kiddo, what happened?”

“Nothing,” Peter muttered, glancing back towards his left. 

Tony frowned deeply. “So what, did you punch yourself in the face to make your nose bleed?”

“Why do you ask if you already know what happened?” Peter snapped, getting up to pace.

Tony took a calming breath, trying not to let his frustration get the better of him. It wouldn’t help matters if he fought with the teen now. “Pete, I just walked in to see my kid with a bloody nose while another, much older student was fighting tooth and nail to attack you again. I’m concerned here kid, please help me out.”

Peter bit his lip as he sat back down. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“Ok,” Tony slowly said. “How about you start all the way from when Dr. Lebrenew and I left.”

Peter sighed as he wrung his hands nervously. “I mean, everything was cool at first. Anette was explaining their whole project to me, and it was super interesting. They’re like trying to build an AI that can detect change in the mental  health of patients more easily, which is of course an awesome thing and the code behind it is so beautiful, Ned would-”

“Pete,” Tony interrupted the boy’s rambling. “I’m sure the project is great and all, but I don’t need a run down of it right now. Just tell what led to some asshat attacking you.”

“Right,” Peter blushed. “Sorry. Um ok, like I said everything was cool and the students were nice enough. We just worked on the code for like 40 minutes, and then Annette said we could take a break. We all sat down and ate some snacks, and they all started asking me how it was working at SI and for you. I, uh, tried to give them vague answers ya know? But this one Jason, he just started being an asshole all of a sudden…” 

Peter trailed off and clenched his fists tightly. Tony gently pulled the kid’s hands to him and unclenched the fists before Peter could draw blood from himself. “How exactly?”

Peter pursed his lips and shook his head sharply. “Doesn’t matter, I’m used to it.”

“Pete,” Tony groaned out as he gripped the kid’s wrist firmly. “Tell me, I need to know the whole story.”

Peter blew a breath out sharply. “Fine. He, uh, started asking how’d I get an internship with you. I told him our cover story about the science fair, but he said that it was BS. I dunno, we just started going back and forth because he couldn’t believe that, and I quote, ‘some poor skinny piece of white trash could get the most lucrative internship in the world without some sort of underhand deal.’”

Tony could feel himself shake with anger as he spit out, “That little asshole.”

“Yeah I know,” Peter laughed bitterly. “That wasn’t the worst part though, No, he like started to imply that I, um, did stuff for you.”

Tony blinked. “I mean you do help me in the lab, so-”

“No, I don’t mean like assisting you and stuff like that,” Peter cut him off. He flushed deeply and refused to meet Tony’s again. “He started saying that I, um, well…” Peter closed his eyes and whispered with a flinch, “That I did… sexual stuff for you. He said that was all that I was good for in life probably, just ‘spreading my legs and taking it’, and that that was the only reason you kept me around.”

Tony stared at Peter for a moment, both anger and horror pooling in his stomach. “ _ What _ ?!”

“Please don’t make me repeat it,” Peter pleaded, staring at Tony with teary eyes.

“That fucking piece of shit,” Tony seethed, getting up to pace around the office. “Oh I am going to absolutely kill him! How dare he, fucking dumbass idiot!” 

Tony was so livid that he couldn’t help himself, he blindly punched a nearby wall. He could feel his hand throb in pain but he did not care, how dare someone imply that Peter, sweet innocent  _ Peter _ , was only good for  _ that _ , that Tony would dare take advantage of someone that he viewed as a son? Oh that dumbass was going to pay.

With wide brown eyes Peter jumped to his feet. “I swear I defended you Mr. Stark! I told him that  you would never ever dare do that to anyone, that you’re a hero so you would never! I can’t believe someone would actually think that you of all people would actually do that, I mean that’s crazy, how could-” Throughout his small rant Peter’s breath had rapidly gotten faster, until he was forced to cut himself off when he was practically hyperventilating.

“Peter!” Tony cried as he caught the kid right before he fell to the floor. He sat down on his legs as he held the boy close. “C’mon kid, just breathe, follow my breathing.” Tony made sure to over exaggerate his breathing so the kid could follow.

It took a few minutes but Peter finally regained control of his breathing. His cheeks were tear stained and pale but he sat back to look straight into Tony’s eyes. “I am so sorry Mr. Stark, I swear I told him to go to Hell because you would never do that.”   
“Oh kiddo,” Tony breathed. “Thank you for that, but did you even try to defend yourself?”

Peter frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Kid, that asshat said some terrible things about you,” Tony started slowly. “Did you even say one thing against what he was saying about you.”

“Well no,” Peter answered as he got up to start to pace the room once again. Tony quickly got up too. “Who the Hell cares about what he said about me, how dare he say that about you!”

“I do!” Tony practically yelled. “I care, he should have never said that about you.”

Peter stared at Tony a moment before he shook his head. “Mr. Stark, I’m just a nobody from Queens. In the grand scheme of things I don’t matter, but  _ you do _ . You’re a hero Mr. Stark, you don’t deserve for people to say that kind of crap about you.”

Tony wanted to rip his hair out in frustration because  _ this kid  _ was such a hard headed self sacrificer. “Sorry kiddo, that’s where you’re wrong. Peter Parker is just as important as Tony Stark, maybe even more important.”

Peter stopped pacing to frown at Tony. “I mean, Spider-Man just deals with the small stuff, you-”

“Nope,” Tony interrupted. “I don’t mean as Spider-Man, I’m talking about just Peter Parker.”

Peter continued to stare at Tony. “Honestly fine, whatever. My point is that how dare he say that about you, you’re so good, you’re a hero, my hero, and you’re like my-” Peter froze and snapped his jaw shut.

Tony blinked at the boy. “Like what kid?”

“Nothing,” Peter replied quickly, turning to look out a nearby window.

Tony frowned as he walked to stand directly behind the kid. “Just tell me kiddo.”

Peter quickly turned on his heels to look up at Tony, determination in his eyes. “You’re like my dad ok! I haven’t had a dad in a long time, my real dad died when I was so little, and Uncle Ben was like my dad my whole entire life but he died too, so all I have left is you, and I’ll be damned if I let someone insult you in front of me! I don’t care what anyone says about me, I don’t care if Flash or Jason or anyone insults me everyday for the rest of my life, but I refuse to listen to anyone ruin your reputation!”

Peter was practically shaking when he finished his outburst, either from anger or determination Tony wasn’t sure. All Tony could do was stare down at the kid because holy crap, he did not deserve to have someone so good like Peter in his life. It both humbled and saddened Tony.

It seemed that Tony’s lack of reply made the kid uncomfortable, because he started to say, “Oh God, forget I said anything, I just made this weird, I know you probably don’t see me as your son, I am so sorry Mr.-”

Peter was cut off by a tight hug from Tony. “Kid don’t take this the wrong way, but  _ shut up  _  and just listen to me for once. I do see you like a son, I wish you were really mine. But I am so glad you’re in my life. You are such a good and kind and special and amazing boy, anyone would be proud of having a son of you. Hell, I’m proud of you every minute of every day! 

“But kiddo, you didn’t need to defend me, trust me a lot worse has been said about me for years. I would rather you defend yourself because you don’t deserve to hear the things that asshole said to you. You are so freaking good, kiddo, I wish you could see how important you are. I don’t deserve to have you in my life but I am so  _ thankful _ that I do! And fuck it, if I have to constantly remind you that you’re important for the foreseeable future then I’m perfectly fine with that, you deserve to hear it. Trust me Peter, I will always be proud of you and…” Tony took a deep breath and hugged Peter tighter, “I love you kid, no matter what.”

Hearing that made Peter hug Tony back harder, and with a touch of his superhuman strength, but Tony couldn’t find it in himself to care.

“Thank you, Mr. Stark,” Peter whispered against his shoulder.

“No problem, kiddo,” Tony said, stepping back to let the kid wipe the tears from his eyes. 

“And just saying, I love you too,” Peter smiled up at him.

“You better, or I’m taking away your Netflix account,” Tony snarked, ruffling Peter’s hair.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Peter mock gasped. “Aunt May would literally hunt you down and kill you.”

“Yeah you’re right, I would not want to go up against Aunt hottie,” Tony shivered as Peter giggled. “But kid, I don’t think you’ve finished your story.”

“What?” Peter asked. “I thought I did.”   


“Nope, you still haven’t said why that dickwad punched you.”

“Oh yeah,” Peter said with a chuckle. “Um, when he started saying that stuff and I started arguing back, I kind of said that he would know all about that sexual favor stuff because that’s probably the only reason why he got into MIT.”

Tony blinked at the kid in shock before he bent over and started to wheeze with laughs. “Holy crap kid, good comeback! I am so proud of you!”   


“I don’t think you’re supposed to be proud of me for saying something like that,” Peter said with a grin.

“Too bad, I am! I can’t wait to tell Rhodey about this.”

 

* * *

 

By the time Peter and Tony exited the office only Dr. Lebrenew remained in the lab. She was working on a laptop but quickly closed it when she saw the duo enter the lab area.

“Antonio!” She cried out. “I am so incredibly sorry!”   


“Not your fault that you had a dick for a student, doc,” Tony replied as he allowed the doctor to hug him. She also went to hug Peter, who awkwardly accepted the hug.

“Well trust me, Tonio, Jason is in a mountain of trouble, both with me and the school. He’s officially banned from my labs for the rest of semester, and he’s facing disciplinary action from the school safety committee. I promise you that he will receive the harshest punishment possible for assaulting your intern.”

“That’s not necessary, Dr. Lebrenew,” Peter hastily said. 

“Sorry kid, it is,” Tony rolled his eyes. “You’re 16, and that asshole should have known better than to insult and attack a minor.”   


“He’s right, Mr. Parker,” Dr. Lebrenew added. “MIT holds itself to the highest of esteems, and we do not tolerate behavior like that shown by Mr. Hertals.”

Peter frowned but didn’t say anything else.

Dr. Lebrenew turned back to Tony and spoke. “I really am sorry for all of this, Tony, please forgive me and my labs.”   


“Like I said, not your fault,” Tony replied.

Dr. Lebrenew nodded tightly. “I hope that you will still one day visit again, I did enjoy our talk over coffee.”   


“I did too,” Tony confessed. “Trust me, I’ll be back again, but for now me and my kid need to head out, we still have stuff to see and places to be,”

“Of course,” Dr. Lebrenew smiled, She hugged Tony again. “It was wonderful seeing you again.” Turning to Peter, she continued, “I truly am sorry young man, I hope this does not ruin your view on MIT. Have a wonderful rest of your day, and please take care of yourself and your father.”

Peter shook her hand and nodded seriously. “Trust me, Dr. Lebrenew, I promise I will.” 

From next to him Tony just smiled.

 

* * *

 

“Alright kid, so now what?” Tony asked as they walked out of Stata.

“Hm, I dunno,” Peter replied with a shrug. His eyes light up a second later. “Hey can you show me where you lived?”

“Eh, why not,” Tony answered, wrapping an arm around his kid’s shoulders. “How bout we also stop and get some ice cream on the way?”

“Yes!” Peter grinned. “Thanks dad, you’re the best!”

Tony didn’t even blink as he replied, “No problem kiddo, you deserve it. Love you Peter.”

“Love ya too dad.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, can't believe it's over! Like I said before, this was my first ever work of fanfiction, and I'm so incredibly happy that I was able to finish it! I hope you all enjoyed it, and keep an eye out in the future, I have some stuff planned out that will probably come out early next week, including a long chaptered story featuring hurt but still a bamf Peter, dad Tony, and some kidnapping while they're on a father-son camping trip. I hope to see you around for that! Love you all <3
> 
> (PS, I have literally never been on MIT campus, I just googled some places and tried my best lol. Please let me know if I was terribly wrong with the geography. Also let me know if I made any grammar/spelling errors! And don't forget to follow me on Tumblr, where I post shorter stories, answer asks and prompts, and just generally reblog Tony & Peter father-son content. My username there is the same one as my AO3 one. Thanks again loves!)

**Author's Note:**

> Any constructive criticism is welcomed! Let me know if I should fix something, and if you would love to see anything else in the story. I have the other chapters mapped out, but the plots are flexible. Thanks again for taking the time to read my little story, loves, and please comment or kudos if you can! <3


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